The first episode of Loki Season 2 introduced audiences to Ke Huy Quan’s O.B., a TVA employee who works in the Repairs and Advancement Department. Mobius and Loki visit O.B. to determine how and why the God of Mischief is “time-slipping.” O.B. then explains the rules of time travel and how Loki needs to use a Temporal Aura Extractor to stop time-slipping. Executive producer Kevin Wright explained the significance of this explanation from Quan’s character.
“That was something in [head writer] Eric Martin’s first draft of the script; that scene existed, almost fully formed as to what’s on screen and it was a big ‘aha’ moment for us,” Martin said to GamesRadar+. “It was like, ‘Oh, you can do these brain teaser moments. If they’re entertaining, fun, and visually simple to follow.'”
The scene cuts between Loki talking with O.B. about time-slipping 400 years in the past and Mobius conversing with O.B. in the present, who suddenly remembers he made the Temporal Aura Extractor and that it’s ready for use. Wright explained how the writers’ goal was to simplify time travel and make it so that the audience could easily understand it.
“We always would go back to the guiding principles of Season 1, try to expand them outward. We would write really detailed explanations of how all this works, then cull them down and try to present the idea with as few words as possible,” Wright said. “So, a character might say something in a sentence or two, then a graphic could help? We figured that was going to be better to the narrative that we’re telling than really trying to lay it all out where, maybe, we trip ourselves up on logic or things like that.”
What to expect in Loki Season 2
Tom Hiddleston reprises his role as Loki. Other returning cast members include Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Owen Wilson as Mobius, Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Judge Renslayer, and Jonathan Majors as a variant of Kang known as Victor Timely. Quan is one of the new additions to the Season 2 cast, along with Kate Dickie and Rafael Casal.
Eric Martin is the head writer for Loki Season 2. Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Dan DeLeeuw, and Kasra Farahani will all direct episodes.
The first episode of Season 2 premiered on October 5, garnering Disney+’s second-biggest debut of 2023 with 10.9 million global views after three days. Episode 2 streams on Disney+ at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. ET on October 12.
