Charla con el productor y el director detrás de la serie ‘Loki’

Loki has already arrived on screens worldwide with its second season. The celebrated series about the God of Mischief returns after a two-year hiatus to breath new life into Marvel. It’s no secret that the company is not at its best right now. After Avengers: Endgame, fans of the franchise have shown less interest in the new stories of the MCU. In addition, the reviews of several recent offerings have not been entirely positive. This situation needs to be reversed as soon as possible.

In the last three years, Marvel Studios has alternated highly acclaimed projects with others that have been widely criticized. For example, this year we saw the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a movie that was highly praised, and Invasion, a series that greatly disappointed its viewers. But with Loki, Marvel is playing it safe. The character has been part of the saga for 12 years. He started out as a villain in Thor and The Avengers. Since then, his character development has gone far beyond that, captivating all his fans. The highlight of this God is his actor, Tom Hiddleston, one of the most versatile actors in the studio.

The first season is the most popular series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+. And that’s no small feat, considering the franchise already has 9 episodic productions, in addition to some specials. On the occasion of the premiere of Loki’s second season, we had the opportunity to talk to its producer, Kevin Wright, as well as the director of its second episode, Dan DeLeeuw. With the first episode already available, there are many key aspects that need to be analyzed about this ambitious project, which starts with a short but highly entertaining self-contained adventure.

Loki has a different aura despite being connected to the rest of the Marvel Universe. Casual fans can greatly enjoy it without having to watch or read about the entire preceding story. DeLeeuw believes that the key is that it is a story similar to a movie, but with much more time to develop it. According to the director, «Loki is unique in the sense that, even though you can take a character you grew up with and spend a small amount of time with him [in a movie], it’s only two hours. That’s the degree of character development you get.» However, with Loki and the incredible characters in the series, you can spend more time in a way that remains very cinematic. It’s a very cinematic style of filming, but you can take a very complex character and delve into his personality, his character. And based on the events happening around him, really see his development in a way that you can’t see in the movie,» the director concludes.

Thanks to the series, fans have been able to empathize much more with Loki, who has become a hero in the midst of a temporal and moral war. «The series has a philosophical foundation, and this season is much more about free will versus destiny. Self-determination and so on. It’s very interesting to apply those concepts to a character and his way of being because he’s complex,» reflects DeLeeuw. «He started as a villain, but a villain who is aware of his abilities. Unlike Thanos, who is a true believer, Loki acts out of envy, suffering, not being able to spend enough time with his parents… The series shows his development, how he’s changing,» adds the director. However, he confesses that they didn’t want to completely lose the essence of what made him so special. «He still has something of that dark side. Especially in this second season, we wanted to make sure that, even though it seems like he left a lot of that behind in the first season, he knows that a part of himself still has that dark side and can access it,» suggests DeLeeuw. Ultimately, it seems that the new season will delve into the acceptance feelings of its protagonist, striking a balance between both sides.

Currently, Marvel is facing an unprecedented problem within the company. The workers in the visual effects department have decided to unionize after a long time denouncing poor working conditions. On top of that, fans have not hesitated to criticize the poor finishing of some projects due to lack of time for the employees. However, Loki’s result is extraordinary. «If there’s something from the first season of Loki that we always prioritized, it was the visual effects, obviously, and the production design. Cinematography was always very important to me,» reveals Wright. «The thing is, all the people leading these departments are true artists, and they can only make something look as good as the tools you give them,» the producer defends. «If I talk to my production designer and he wants to build a big set, that takes time. You have to adjust your schedule to give them space for the things they’re going to build. If you want your director of photography to make it look great, that takes time. And sometimes that means you might have fewer shots during the day,» Wright exemplifies. This philosophy has been followed strictly in Loki to avoid the series being incomplete on a technical and visual level. «We all talk to each other. How do we want this to look? How do we want…