Loki Has a Timeless Retro-Sci-Fi Atmosphere

In Marvel Studios’ new TV series Loki, God of Mischief Tom Hiddleston returns to the screen as the mercurial villain, but this version of the character is far more subdued than his flamboyant appearance in Ragnarok. As he begins his adventures after the events of Avengers: Endgame, the god-of-mischief finds himself caught up in the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a timeline-policing bureaucracy with an intriguingly timeless retro-sci-fi aesthetic.

Set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this Disney Plus series was written by Michael Waldron and directed by Kate Herron. It stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius, a former agent of the TVA.

The first episode of the series opens with the mercurial villain escaping from the TVA before being captured and sent to their offices in a sleek reception area dipped in a midcentury modern aesthetic. It’s the first time we get a glimpse of what the TVA looks like, but the office is similar to other sci-fi stories that explore bureaucracy and the need for a safe place to be.

Next, the mercurial villain uses his Tesseract to travel back in time to 2077 Lamentis-1, a moon that’s about to be crushed by a planet. While he’s there, he falls in love with Sylvie, a variant of herself who is also working for the TVA.

As she tries to kill He Who Remains, Sylvie triggers a multiverse with alternate timelines that the TVA cannot prune. As he watches, Loki realizes the TVA is the root cause of the war threatening the Sacred Timeline. He takes responsibility for his actions, and frees those in the TVA and repurposes the agency to help fight against the Kang insurgence.