It would be fair to call the Multiverse Saga consistently inconsistent, but as the follow-up to one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most popular and acclaimed projects ⏤ never mind the first live-action Disney Plus series to return for a second run ⏤ Loki already has plenty of inbuilt goodwill.
The opening stretch of time-hopping misadventures for Tom Hiddleston’s title hero comfortably ranks among the finest content the long-running franchise has ever put out, so hopes are naturally high that the sophomore season has picked up where its predecessor left off.
Encouragingly, the first reactions to Loki’s return have dropped, and they’re every bit as positive as you’d expect. Not to sound too cynical, though, but we all remember when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Secret Invasion to name but three were all the recipients of such unanimous praise after their initial screenings, and everybody knows how that turned out.
That being said, Loki was genuinely great, and with the shackles off to take Season 2 in even more deranged directions, we’re a lot more inclined to believe the MCU really is back this time.
The first season laid the table for everything that was to follow by introducing the concept of variants, the TVA, and of course Jonathan Majors’ first appearance as Kang the Conqueror variant He Who Remains, so it would be reasonable to expect plenty of canonical heavy lifting to follow in Loki‘s second stab at small screen success.
It’s become harder and harder to get genuinely excited about the MCU’s incoming offerings after constant disappointment, but this could be the perfect tonic to cure those ills.