Following the game-changing season finale of Loki, which introduced a brand new threat to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe in the shape of the many different variants of Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains (one of which is the immortal Kang the Conqueror), we were able to sit down with director Kate Herron and get some additional insight into what we saw in the finale and what to expect from the hotly-awaited season two.
Among the things we talked about was the casting of Majors as the MCU's next big villain, as well as what could possibly be in Sylvie's (Sophia Di Martino) future now that she's gotten what she thought she wanted. Herron also teases Throg's (Chris Hemsworth) future and tells us if there's a possibility we could ever see Loki gain some closure with his mother Frigga (Rene Russo).
Check out the full video interview below or keep scrolling for the transcript!
ROHAN: Hey Kate, how are you?
KATE: I'm good, thank you! I love your jacket!
ROHAN: Oh thank you... thought I’d get my audition in for season two.
KATE: *laughs*
ROHAN: I loved what you did with season one, congratulations on the whole series.
KATE: Thank you so much, yeah, it’s been such a thrill just to see all the fan responses and not have to keep the secret of He Who Remains anymore, so it’s just been really fun watching the reaction over the last few days.
ROHAN: Casting Jonathan Majors was a real masterstroke. When it was reported that he was cast as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania back in September, did that sort of alleviate any pressure since people weren’t really expecting him to show up in Loki, until maybe after episode five came out and it became more and more clear where the show might be going?
KATE: Yeah, it was definitely because when that role was being cast, basically, it was a conversation with me, with Peyton, and then with Marvel, so we were all discussing the actors that we thought could be great and Jonathan was just an actor that all of us were like, ‘Oh my God, we would be so lucky to get him,” and I think for me, it kind of was good when that press release came out because it diverted from our show, you know, like everyone was sort of expecting him to show up in that film and I obviously knew, oh, well, it’s not Kang, but we have a Variant of that character in our show, which is so fun I think, so no, I think it was a massive honor to be part of that and launch him.
ROHAN: You had a tough task to introduce such a huge character in 45 minutes, and you completely pull it off. He has such an epic, instantly iconic introduction. Did you ever play around with other variations of his first scene?
KATE: I think honestly, the writers had written in that he came out of the elevator and that was always in there, and I think for me, there was a kind of like casualness in the writing, which was really fun, which Jonathan definitely played with and picked up and then obviously made his own and I think for me, it was from that point, it was kind of going back from that.
It was just about tension building, so like with Miss Minutes, I loved the idea of the jump scare with her because then already the audience is thinking, oh wait, we just had this horrible jump scare with her, you almost kind of expect another one, then when he appears and it obviously doesn’t happen. He’s very casually sitting in the elevator and is like, “Oh hey, what’s up?,” kind of thing, which I think is so fun and yeah, for me, it was always about playing with expectations and I just love the kind of relaxed nature of his character. I thought that was so fun.
ROHAN: Yeah, yeah, Miss Minutes at 3-4 AM scared the shit out of me.
KATE: *laughs*
ROHAN: The fourth statue that was knocked over, can we safely assume that was Kang or Immortus or an even worse variant that we can't know about yet?
KATE: *smiles and gives a big shrug*
ROHAN: Completely understand.
KATE: *laughs*
ROHAN: In Avengers: Endgame, we get to see Thor get some closure with Frigga, and like all of our moms, she gets him back on the right path. But neither version of Loki has really gotten that opportunity yet. Was there ever plans for a Frigga appearance on the show or is that something we could maybe see in the future?
KATE: I can’t speak to what could be in the future, but in terms of what we did in our show, I would say that we didn’t actually have anything like that. I think it was always meant to be a moment of - it’s painful what happens to him in Dark World, and what happens through his actions, and I think no, it was always meant to be a moment of - cause you know he loves his mother, I mean you see it in episode three when he talks about how she taught him magic and I think for us, it was more just showing that moment and showing our Loki this horrible future that he would’ve created.
ROHAN: With Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi really reshaped the whole visual aesthetic for Thor and Loki and gave their world a lot more personality than it had in the first two films - did you look to that film, in particular, to draw any visual cues while you were shaping your own uniquely beautiful corner of the MCU?
KATE: Yeah sure, I love Ragnarok, but I would say our inspirations were more, I would say it weirdly, but more like film noir, like kind of detective stories cause when I first joined the show, I had the first few episodes, the scripts, and I remember reading Elissa’s script and I was just so excited by the detective element in it.
I thought well Loki is like a detective in this episode and the variants are always attacking from the shadows and I don’t know, for me, that felt really cool and moody and also, it kind of felt very Loki to me and it kind of grounded the show in terms of tone as well cause, you know, our show is very dramatic and it is very big in places and I felt like that kind of visual style would really kind of sit it right tonally causes it wasn’t - we have funny moments, but it wasn’t a pure comedy, our show.
ROHAN: The end of the season sees Sylvie kill He Who Remains and get everything she's been working toward, but then she's sort of left there alone, not knowing what to do next or where to go from there.
KATE: I think that’s the question, isn’t it? I think the really key thing to show was that I always think about her emotionally being sort of in the same space that Loki was in Thor, she’s driven by revenge and anger and she doesn’t know where to put this anger and so she puts it into what she does to He Who Remains and I think it was really important to show that it didn’t solve all her problems.
You see that look on her face, she doesn’t feel cathartic, she doesn’t feel good, she still feels this hollowness, so I think wherever she goes, she has quite a journey to go on, but yeah, I don’t know. I mean she’s in the Citadel for now, so yeah.
ROHAN: I know it was your decision not to return for season two, but with you also coming to the end of a massive journey, did you find yourself drawing any parallels with Sylvie?
KATE: *laughs* That’s so interesting, not consciously. *laughs* I think, for me, I’m just so proud of the show and I love all the work we’ve done and I loved working with everyone on it.
I just think, for me, I always - when I started the show, we were always just the six episodes and I’ve been on it for I think two-and-a-half years and I put everything I had into it and I just felt like that was my part of the story, if you see what I mean, and I have some other stuff that I had, so yeah, but I’m just so proud to be part of it, but no, that’s so funny to compare it to Sylvie. I mean, maybe subconsciously, but, *laughs* not consciously.
ROHAN: What’s the future look like for Throg, the Frog of Thunder?
KATE: Well, I mean he’s in a jar right now, so… *laughs* but, like, you know, I mean maybe he’ll - I guess we’ll have to see. We’ll have to see, but it was a lot of fun to get him in there and I was so pleased to record Chris [Hemsworth] and it definitely felt like, for episode five, that was a very good for Throg to go. *laughs*
Loki season one is now streaming on Disney+!