Why Loki's Title Card Is More Important Than You Think
An important component of any show or movie is its title card. The best way to make viewers stop browsing and check out a property is to provide a bold and striking title card that stands out from a crowd. Some clever media maestros, however, go one step further and invent their own fonts for title cards, or in the case of Loki, use multiple fonts to tell a story.
Ever since Thor's half-brother Loki, the Asgardian God of Mischief, graced the Marvel Cinematic Universe, audiences have wanted a standalone property featuring him, doubly so after Loki stole the show in Avengers. At long last, that dream is coming true with the upcoming Disney+ exclusive Loki. The show's recent trailer teases the basic narrative and includes a few Easter eggs and hidden details, as well as a flamboyant title card that constantly shifts fonts. Viewers on Dafont noticed Dameron, Cloister Black, Old English, and ARB 85 Poster Script JAN-39, but nobody noticed the symbolism hiding in plain sight.
A mercurial font for a mercurial shapeshifter
In the Norse legend source material, readers can't really pin down Loki. A shapeshifter and trickster by heart and nature, he's just as likely to help his fellow Norse gods as he is to stab them in the back, figuratively and literally. While the Marvel comics Loki was initially a straight-up villain, he has become far more complex as of late, and the Loki title card reflects this.
Recently, Empire managed to interview Loki himself — well, his actor Tom Hiddleston, but who's to say Hiddleston isn't actually Loki in disguise? — and he stated that the show's unique shapeshifting title represents the character at his core. Hiddleston explained, "The font of how Loki is spelled out seems to keep changing shape. Loki is the quintessential shapeshifter. His mercurial nature is that you don't know whether, across the MCU, he's a hero or a villain or an anti-hero. You don't know whether you can trust him."
Moreover, since the title doesn't settle on a font identity in order to create a unique logo, the show will likewise play with the notion of identity. According to Hiddleston, a major theme will revolve around "integrating the disparate fragments of the many selves that [Loki] can be, and perhaps the many selves that we are."
For audiences who hope the Loki show will once and for all answer just who Loki is and where his loyalties lie, Hiddleston and the title card might have implied that the question is the answer.