As we brace ourselves for tonight's epic fourth installment of Loki season two, we were recently able to sit down with Primetime Emmy-nominated costume designer Christine Wada (Our Flag Means Death; Zombieland; Double Tap) to discuss her incredible work on the now streaming second season and the immense work that went into crafting some of the instantly iconic looks we've seen thus far from the series.
She starts us off by breaking down how she wanted to depict the characters evolving from season to season before getting into how she utilized the colors of brown and green to really give the show a unique visual style, and her choices behind different costumes for the variety of colorful characters, including Sylvie's new suit, Mobius' space suit, and Ouroboros' retro TVA uniform.
Plus, she details how Tom Hiddleston makes her job that much easier, her working relationship with the directors, and a whole lot more!
Watch our full interview with costume designer Christine Wada below, and please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: Having worked on both seasons one and two, what were some things you wanted to incorporate into the costumes for this season that would help show how these characters have grown and evolved since we first met them?
CHRISTINE: The most obvious thing would be to track Loki and Sylvie in that Tom’s arc was, obviously, we saw him from season one in episode one, but then it became sort of this internal journey for him where the clothes needed to feel like he still had this attachment to the TVA, but we're seeing a little bit more of Loki having choice again to sort of conjure up what he could wear. So, it was straddling this like a hybrid of TVA Loki, given sort of this unspoken storyline that he now could choose his own clothes. And, Sylvie to cross that over, the armor had to feel like something that she had to dig out from deep in her closet, like something that she wanted to shed, and that her costumes in season two needed to still feel threaded to season one, but that she was trying desperately to ditch them to enter into a normal, regular life. So, even the silhouette of the coat is a little bit more like what you might truly find in the ‘80s and not quite as heroic. Or is, I shouldn't say heroic, maybe not as much as camouflage, right?
ROHAN: This show incorporates so many different shades of brown and green into its costumes and settings - how do you work with these colors to make the costumes that we see on our characters? Do you have different shades for different characters or is it more decided by their individual arcs?
CHRISTINE: It started, that whole concept of using the brown, was because the TVA, I thought that the people needed to feel kind of anonymous, and that nobody would stand out and then, carrying it into season two, not only because the story needs to feel very continuous from season one to season two, but also, just in a visual way that I think is very true to Loki, it’s that these characters could traverse many different eras in those color palettes as well, if you think about it, right? So, I think there's a timeless quality to using the brown that works through the worlds that we see within both seasons, and especially since you're toggling back and forth between these two worlds, it's not so jarring where you don't feel that the sole intention of time travel is just to show time travel, that it just helps to feel like there is these big visual leaps between the TVA and going to the 1970s or going to the 1890s, and I think the brown actually really facilitated that in season two.
ROHAN: Ouroboros is such a fantastic new addition to the show. Since he isn’t a character that necessarily interacts with other TVA agents before Mobius and Loki visit him, what went behind creating OB’s look? Were you angling for a more retro TVA look? Or was it something where you could design whatever felt appropriate?
CHRISTINE: No, there were a lot of different illustrations that came up for that, but really, I think the most interesting sort of development with that suit was that Kasra Farahani, the production designer, was designing different levels of the TVA for season two that we had never seen in season one, and there was an intentional palette shift on his part to sort of this green, mint-green world, and in that, the conversation of sort of backdating OB’s character a little bit further back. So, the TVA in season one and as we see it in season two is really rooted in like, late ‘50s and ‘60s, and we really, the way that that suit is built in the samples that I referenced, are really like late ‘40s, early ‘50s, but really ‘40s boiler suits, it was just to try to get him into this very, even more, backdated mechanic look.
ROHAN: Episode three is the big World’s Fair episode, where you’re not just designing new looks for the main cast, but also for hundreds of extras. How long does an episode like this take for you to get ready for and create era-appropriate costumes to match the atmosphere?
CHRISTINE: Well, that's just it, I wanted them to feel seamlessly incorporated into that atmosphere that they didn't look like awkward or standing out in that world that they could be in disguise and travel into these worlds without it being jolting. But, so, what was tricky with Sylvie, because she did not change into an 1890s outfit, so that was considered in developing her costume, even for her main costume, like how could that costume live in the 1890s and not feel out of place was also very considered in the early iterations of that costume we see her in throughout.
ROHAN: When working on a big project like this, what is sort of your working relationship with the writers and directors? Are you involved in the concept art process? Are they giving you reference material to work from? How does that dynamic work?
CHRISTINE: It's a big community and then, you'd have to kind of expand that bubble into the Marvel internal team as well, which they have people illustrating as well some of the classic characters or any characters, but I'm always doing a banter with them. Usually I just send my references or my illustrations through to the director, and the producers, and we start just having this conversation, and we hone it in more and more and more, and Kasra Farahani, the production designer, and I might exchange color swatch ideas or just talk about tonalities or paint or all these, I mean, it's just a very fluid process between us and also, the Visual Effects Director you know, so there's so many different elements in making this world as cohesive as possible. Loki, I think, comes across very cohesive. There's a lot of conversations and then the directors just really kind of keep us all tied together.
ROHAN: Since the show isn’t set in exactly one era, when you’re designing something like Mobius’ space suit, what goes into that design to both make it feel futuristic, but also feel like it could be something that could come from the past?
CHRISTINE: Definitely references were dragged from like a bombsuit, I mean, I just traversed so many different avenues of what that suit could be. The main goal being very awkward. So, it went from like a deep sea diving suit reference to a bomb suit reference to so many things, like, you know, Into The Volcano references - there were so many different references, but also just knowing that we had to add some quirky element to it, which the triangular face plate just sort of helped to take it completely into a this land’s in no era design. But no, the whole concept is just - literally just even the padding of that suit, the quilted shiny padding comes from like a 1950s scuba suit, and there's just so many different elements dragged from all over the references of historical pieces, which is really what Loki is, and also just trying to keep the choice more of a practical thing, like that everything has a purpose. Everything is very purposely intentional in that design.
ROHAN: This season has that big scene where you’re able to recreate an old McDonald’s. What went behind crafting those costumes for Sylvie and her crew? Were you able to get your hands on an old uniform? Or was it something else?
CHRISTINE: I got my hands on an old McDonald’s handbook, and outlined that era of a uniform and that uniform ended exactly in that year. So, really, that's why it has that almost - any decade really starts out kind of looking like the previous decade. So, that's why it has a little bit of a ‘70s vibe, but, believe it or not, we couldn't really find real pieces to order off eBay. I had to figure out what the apron was gonna look like or the hats, so there's just a lot of trial and error trying to get it right and to make it feel like the real thing, and we got the stamp of approval. I think we got it! I think we did it!
ROHAN: You were able to design He Who Remains’ first look last season, and Victor Timely’s look this season, but in between that, we meet Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - was there any collaboration between your team and that team to inform how Kang would be depicted?
CHRISTINE: No, there was no collaboration with that. I just was carrying off of season one really, and what we did with He Who Remains, so no, definitely no collaboration.
ROHAN: Out of all the genres you get to play with, do you have a favorite?
CHRISTINE: I loved, in terms of the ones we did do, gosh, I just love them all. I mean, just in terms of building costumes, the 1890s was really fun and a very fulfilling process because you get to deal with millenary work and you get to deal with embroidery. There's just so much more depth to those costumes, but the 70s is also really fun to do all that glamour coming out of doing, you know, the bureaucracy of the TVA, it was really fun to do that, and the ‘80s - who doesn't have fun doing the ‘80s? It’s always really fun and to figure out how to do all those and not have them be really campy, but yeah, I'd say maybe the 1890s.
"Loki” Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. 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.
Loki episodes 1-3 are now streaming on Disney+!