Loki's Mid-Season Trailer Is Quite Revealing
We are three episodes deep in the third Disney Plus MCU series, "Loki" — a series dealing with time travel and the potential for divergent realities focused on the variant Loki (Tom Hiddleston) we saw escape during the altered "The Avengers" timeline from "Avengers: Endgame." In those three episodes we've seen this new Loki captured by the Time Variance Authority, an organization designed to protect the "sacred timeline," and brought into their services to hunt another Loki variant named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino). Naturally, being the god of mischief, it doesn't take long for Loki to ditch the TVA and try to ascertain the motivations of Sylvie.
When last we saw our two (maybe) heroes, they were trapped on the moon of Lamentis-1 as its own planet is about to crash land into it. How they'll survive this particular apocalyptic event is unclear, but thanks to a new mid-season trailer, we do know they will survive. And, what's more, we also know that both Loki and Sylvie will be apprehended once more by the TVA. However, there are a few things from the latest mid-season trailer which, if you even blink for a moment, you might have missed. Let's go over some of the most intriguing (and potentially revealing) moments from the latest preview.
Loki's past in a new light
Before we get to the new footage, let's take note of what we're reminded of in this trailer from the first three episodes because these moments are likely more important than we realize. The trailer focuses on the beginning of episode two "The Variant" where Loki is helping Mobius (Owen Wilson) and the Minutemen investigate Sylvie. "We have a saying in Asgard, where there are wolf's ears, wolf's teeth are near — it's a trap," Loki says in that scene in a bid to frighten everyone into letting him get his way. "He's lying," Mobius responds. "My ears are sharp, too," he says. At the time we were meant to assume this is just Mobius calling Loki's bluff, but what if there's more to it than that?
"No one bad is ever truly bad," say Loki during the trailer. "And no one good is ever truly good." We cut to Sylvie in the trailer at this moment, who says, "this isn't about you," and, while we're already meant to think Sylvie isn't truly bad, it's possible that the people we think are good that aren't are likely the TVA. We see a nervous Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) about to address the Timekeepers. We already know that the Minutemen who think they were created by the Timekeepers are actually all variant, but what else don't we know?
First D.B. Cooper and now the Philadelphia Experiment
"I believe stupidly you can be anyone you want to be, even someone good," Mobius says, presumably to Loki. However, who is to say that Mobius is himself good? If the opening of this trailer, where Mobius points out that, like Loki, he has sharp ears, does that not also mean Mobius has sharp teeth? Is it possible that Mobius isn't being genuine? It's certainly possible given the way this trailer is structured.
There are two other very key moments from the second half of the trailer that must be discussed, however. The first parallels with something from the first episode of "Loki" — the reference to D.B. Cooper. For non-history enthusiasts, D.B. Cooper is the only person ever to commit air piracy, escape, and get away with it to date. In "Loki," we are told that D.B. Cooper was actually loki the whole time just getting up to some mischief. Now, audiences can apparently surmise that Loki had some hand in the alleged Philadelphia Experiment involving the Cannon-class destroyer, the USS Eldridge.
The Eldridge was supposedly able to become invisible sometime during World War II, but there are all sorts of theories involving time travel and the Eldridge that have been theorized about over the years — including in the classic Kirk Douglas/Martin Sheen film "The Final Countdown". What we can say for sure is that we see the USS Eldridge in the mid-season "Loki" trailer, suggesting that, whatever happened to that ship within the Marvel Universe very much has something to do with Loki — just like D.B. Cooper.
The once and future Loki
If we were going to single out one moment from the trailer, though, it would have to be when we see Loki in full Asgardian regalia, in front of a throne,and surrounded by what appears to be loyal subjects. It's not secret that when we first meet Loki in "Thor" that he believes he should inherit the throne from his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). It doesn't work out that way, but what if it did? That seems to be what the trailer suggests may happen during the time traveling events of "Loki."
However, who is to say the Loki we see in that moment is even the Loki we've been following so far in the this series? We already met Sylvie, the trailer also shows another young girl Loki who may be Sylvie or may be someone else — who is to say the Loki at the throne isn't yet another incarnation? In fact, who is to say what we're seeing in the trailer isn't a flashback for the Richard E. Grant "Old Loki" fans are hypothesizing he's playing in the series? We've yet to see the actor appear and we have no idea what his version of Loki's story is — perhaps he is a version who did inherit the Asgardian throne from Odin.
The only thing we know for certain is that we don't know a lot more than we do about where this multi-dimensional, time-traveling series is headed next. New episodes of "Loki" stream on Disney+ every Wednesday.