The Variant Review

Perhaps lulled into a false sense of cynicism by the uneven pacing of THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER, the second episode of Marvel’s Disney+ series LOKI took me by surprise. Rather than hitting the brakes and treading water to provide more details of the world of the TVA introduced in GLORIOUS PURPOSE, THE VARIANT confounds by pressing the pedal to the metal and barrelling ahead with gleeful abandon.

Recruited by Mobius (Owen Wilson) to help hunt down the rogue Loki variant, our Loki (Hiddleston) formally begins his training as a TVA consultant, visiting the scene of a recent attack. Unable to resist his old tricks, Loki quickly alienates his new colleagues and exhausting Mobius’ patience. Chastened and grudgingly keen to prove his intentions, Loki buckles down and manages to figure out where the rogue variant is hiding. But the encounter leaves Loki shaken when his duplicitous doppelgänger dismisses his own plan if favour of something much, much grander.

Outside of Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark, there’s perhaps no role in the MCU that’s played with greater relish and transcendent authenticity than Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. He may have auditioned originally for the role of Thor but it’s plain that Loki is the role he was born to play. Once again, an exquisitely layered script allows Hiddleston to run the gamut of Loki’s range from scheming superiority to humbled insecurity and back again, forever looking for the angle, the opportunity or the leverage to turn his situation to his advantage and rise to where he believes he belongs: at the top.

It’s Loki’s Machiavellian puppy dog duality that works so well with the softly spoken, laid back wisdom and hidden steel of Wilson’s Mobius. It’s a classic mismatched buddy pairing as they both try to deconstruct each other to gain the upper hand while simultaneously relying on each other to prove themselves right and catch the variant. For the audience, it’s an unalloyed delight but that delight, it has to be said, isn’t shared by Mobius’ closest colleagues Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) who regard the team-up more with dismay and, in Hunter B-15, a deep and abiding mistrust.

The series continues to skilfully weave its exposition throughout its dialogue and despite having to convey some pretty complex concepts it never feels forced, heavy-handed or intrusive. Loki and Mobius’ lunch date as Loki tries to explain the Variant’s evasive manoeuvres is a perfect example of how cleverly and wittily the dialogue explores the world around them without you hearing the writers explaining to the audience instead of the characters talking to each other.

The identity of the Variant may come as a surprise to some who’d managed to avoid the rumours spreading across the internet for weeks but the real surprise is that they were revealed already and not only that but, having established its storytelling status quo the series shakes everything up at the end of its second episode leaving you both guessing and gasping to know where it goes next.

LOKI is the first Marvel Disney+ series that’s left me cursing at the weekly release approach, a frustration that would no doubt gratify the God of Mischief himself.