EP Kevin Wright On New MCU Title, Happy Endings & Fan Theories

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Loki season 2!

The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a redeemed villain’s hands with the Loki season 2 finale. After trying to use his time-slipping powers to restore the Temporal Loom, Tom Hiddleston’s eponymous character learns from He Who Remains that it will always fail and is offered the choice to either kill Sylvie to save the Loom, and subsequently cancel out growing branches, or end the universe. Loki instead chooses to destroy the Loom himself and revive the timelines with his own powers, holding them together in a structure resembling that of Yggdrasil, the tree of life.

Tom Hiddleston once again led the ensemble Loki season 2 cast alongside Sophia DiMartino, Ke Huy Quan, Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong and Jonathan Majors. While acting as the conclusion of his initial arc, the season 2 finale set Loki up in a prominent position for the impending multiversal war in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars.

Related: Loki Season 2 Ending Explained

Following the episode’s premiere, Screen Rant interviewed executive producer Kevin Wright to discuss the Loki season 2 finale, what the character’s new MCU title is and means for the future, creating happy endings for the show’s characters and how fan theories affect the franchise.

Kevin Wright Talks The Loki Season 2 Finale

Screen Rant: Season 2 somehow surpassed both Loki season 1 and Ms. Marvel to be my favorite MCU season yet, so kudos to you and your team. Diving right in, I love that at the end of this season, Loki finally has his throne for a meaningful reason, and that it resembles Yggdrasil in its design. There were theories that Loki was going to become the God of Stories at the end of this season, but now it almost seems like he’s the God of the Multiverse. Can you tell me which one you guys are referring to him as internally, and how that affects his future, especially in regards to something like Secret Wars?

Kevin Wright: Uh, no. [Laughs] I don’t say this to be a jerk about it, I think we all, really, the writers, filmmakers, directors, have all kind of held hands and said, “We believe our intentions are fully there on screen.” And there might be some decoding that has to be done and some close watching, but I think what we intend for people to take away from it is there on-screen, and I think all of those things are points of reference. I think they are all building to something probably new and unique, but I would also say if you’re the person at the end of time, holding everything together, you probably, on some level, are a weaver of those stories, as well. I think that both can be true is as far as I can go with it.

I love that, I think that’s a great twist on what comic book fans, at the very least, are expecting. Now, on a similar note, the MCU is no stranger, obviously, to theories for all of its projects, and Loki is one of the biggest ones alongside WandaVision. Did you have any favorite theories that you saw for this season from fans, and how often do you and your team look towards those theories, either during the development or during the release?

Kevin Wright: I’m going to admit, I love reading all that, and we would read all of it in season 1, we would read everything afterwards, I would joke about it with Tom, all of it goes into the blender. Oftentimes, it’s not really influencing you other than you’re aware of it. And, something that Kate [Herron] and I talked a lot about in season 1 that led to everything we did now in season 2 with Justin and Aaron was like, “We know people are watching it that way, and that every frame is going to be frozen and looked at, so anything that you’re putting there needs to be highly intentional, and be able to withstand the scrutiny of people looking at it.”

I think, to us — to me specifically — it’s a nice way to engage with the audience and be like, “I know you’re looking, and we know that you’re looking, so we are going to put things there to acknowledge I know you’re looking. And maybe some of those things are pointing in the right direction, others might be there to purposely throw people off, or make them think one thing so that we can hit them harder with something else.”

My one fun one that I saw this season — well, two things actually, one is that Jack, the manager of McDonald’s, was young Mobius. Never crossed their minds, that was very fun. And [the other is] that Mobius is maybe a variant of Odin. I was like, “That’s fun.” So, I don’t know, we’re looking, at least I’m looking, Justin and Aaron would frequently tell me to stop looking, and I’m like, “I can’t help it. I love it!” And I think the show is better because of that, though, because we are engaging with it.

No, I couldn’t agree more, especially with Easter eggs, whether they’re misdirects or intentional, they’re always so much fun just to have them there. Now, one thing I find interesting about not only this show, but the recent phase of the MCU, is that despite Kang being touted as the Multiverse Saga’s big bad, he’s now 0-3 in this franchise. Unlike Thanos, where we saw his acolytes lose in the lead up to Infinity War and Endgame, we are seeing who is supposed to be the big bad lose time and again, what is the thought process there in showing this sort of flip of the formula that audiences are used to with the MCU?

Kevin Wright: I can’t really speak to Quantumania, but I can tell you with Loki, and in the development of now 12 episodes of this, what I have always found interesting about Kang’s mythology, and He Who Remains, and Victor Timely, and all of these people is it isn’t about the one. It isn’t about the one that’s going to come and do something, it is the nature at which they control things, and how this isn’t, to me, would never necessarily be some big Kang coming in and leading a big army and doing all this. It is a person who could literally just rewrite and reconquer time from any moment and what machinations would they do that with?

I think when He Who Remains shows up in season 2, I find him to be even more scary than in season 1. And I don’t know, did he lose? Did he lose at the end of this? Is Loki doing exactly what maybe he wanted them to do? We know multiversal war is coming, as Sophie says, it’s like, “Give us a chance at least.” That’s what Loki has done, so I don’t know. I think it’s all cool, exciting stuff, and that if you’re looking at him to be the next Thanos, I think you’re maybe not — not you [laughs] — I think maybe audiences aren’t necessarily looking at what is actually scary about this guy.

I love that framing of him, it’s a good thing for audiences to keep in mind going into future phases. Now, going off the note of Kang, I remember early reports indicating that Majors was going to play multiple variants of Kang in this season. We got Timely, we got He Who Remains, but were there ever plans to include further versions of him, especially now that we have the Council of Kangs?

Kevin Wright: No, it was always Timely, our big trick up our sleeve was you were gonna see He Who Remains not just in flashback, but that he would come back properly. So, no, the Council of Kangs in Quantumania was shot as additional photography as we were making season 2, so that kind of came separate after we had finished writing — and it was cool! But no, there was never any other versions of Kang, so I don’t know where that came from.

I like that, though, because it better fits that thematic journey of Loki throughout these two seasons, so I’m glad you kept it minimal like that.

Kevin Wright: It was always just about playing our characters in our story. Anything that felt too connected to the bigger other stories felt wrong for us.

That’s a perfect way to approach it. Now, the season 2 finale not only raised the stakes for Loki and his ending, but also for the wider MCU multiverse, there were so many characters who seemed destined to die. Was there ever a plan for any of the characters to be killed off for good?

Kevin Wright: If I’m having to think this hard, I want to say no. Sometimes, you talk about things in the writers room, but even this, I don’t think we ever talked about anyone actually being killed, mainly because I know all of us just want to keep telling stories with these characters. And, I think having those stakes really just let us tell deeper, emotional stories, and I think there are things where it’s like, you could do certain things for shock factor, but ultimately, I think they would be kind of hollow.

What’s more engaging is, “Is Mobius going to look at his life? Why isn’t he going? Why doesn’t he want to? What is that going to feel like when he actually does get a glimpse of it?” That is always going to be more engaging than, “Who are we killing?” [Laughs] Because, also, fans know how this works, it’s comic book stuff, you could do it. But like we could always bring somebody back and like it just has diminishing returns. So it’s really about getting the deeper character complex.

I love that. For my final question, I’d love to dive further into Mobius, because I’d love to know whether you feel that is a happy ending for him, a sad ending for him, because we don’t see whether he goes to reclaim his life or whether he just leaves?

Kevin Wright: Yeah, I think it is happy in the sense that he is overcoming a personal obstacle, and where he decides to go with that is a new story. I think we wanted to be keen not to feel like we’re starting a new story at the end of our show, so that it’s like, “Ha ha, now you gotta watch whatever.” I think we wanted it to feel like a closed completion, but leave our characters’ world with ways to go with other stories. Maybe he stays down there, maybe all he needed to do was take a look at it, and now it’s like, as he was saying to B-15, “I just need to know what we’ve been fighting for all this time.” I think it is happy in the sense of he is listening to the conversations he’s had with Loki, and he is taking heed, and he is trying to overcome a personal obstacle, and where he goes from it will be new growth in the way that Loki has had huge amount of growth over seasons. Where this lets Mobius go is new territory, and that’s cool.

About Loki Season 2

Along with Mobius, Hunter B-15 and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie, Judge Renslayer, Miss Minutes and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.

Check out our previous Loki season 2 interviews with:

Loki season 2 is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+!

Source: Screen Rant Plus