The first official trailer for Loki Season 2 is out and it is packed with the kind of breathtaking visuals and off-kilter moments that made Season 1 such a thrill. We’ve got Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan behind the desk of the TVA’s cluttered repairs department, located in a dizzyingly symmetrical maze of knick-knacks. There’s Owen Wilson’s Mobius snacking on the greenest key lime pie you ever did see. There are our two Lokis: Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) sporting a mullet and a bad attitude; and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in a groovy, frilly 1970s tuxedo.
Oh — and there’s Kang (Jonathan Majors) in the Old West, the presumed villain of the season as well as this entire phase of Marvel content. But unlike all of the gorgeous production design and witty repartee between Loki and Mobius, these shots of Jonathan Majors are notable for a totally different reason. They confirm that Majors is still involved in Loki despite… Uh, let’s just say some less-than-favorable headlines.
To sum it up, Majors has spent most of the time since the release of his big Marvel movie debut — February’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — dodging allegations of intimidating on-set behavior, assault, and domestic violence. The trouble started in March when it was reported that Majors and his girlfriend got into a physical altercation in the backseat of a cab. Majors was then dropped by his management as well the Met Gala and a number of other partnerships. By the end of April, more allegations had been made as it was reported that a number of alleged victims were cooperating with the investigation into the March incident. The bad press culminated in a sprawling exposé from Rolling Stone that included comments and allegations from 40 people, published at the end of June.
While Marvel has not explicitly said that they stand behind Majors, the fact that the studio has not commented on the matter, nor have they taken any public actions regarding his role in the blockbuster franchise, can be seen as an implicit statement of support. The series was initially intended to be released in June 2023, and the show’s move to an October 6 release date could have been an indication that Marvel was going to rework the season either by recasting the role or removing Kang from the narrative. In reality, Majors is still there and it’s more likely that the move to October was done to give some breathing room after Secret Invasion, which was bumped from an early 2023 release to June.
Majors’ involvement in Loki Season 2 may just be a storm that Marvel Studios has to weather. After all, the Season 1 finale introduced Majors as one of Kang’s many, many variants ahead of his big screen intro in Quantumania. Loki Season 1 also ended with a cliffhanger revealing that our Loki had found himself in an altered timeline, one ruled outwardly by Kang. Seriously, Jonathan Majors’ face is now part of the show’s set design.
From a storytelling standpoint, removing Kang completely would derail Loki’s story. Kang’s importance to the overall MCU is malleable. While he was more or less a replaceable villain in Quantumania, he is an integral part of Loki’s narrative and is likely all over Season 2. Editing Majors out of Loki may just be impossible, especially in the middle of a writers’ and actors’ strike. You can’t rewrite scenes without writers and you can’t recast Kang without actors.
It is, however, in Marvel’s best interest to do something. After the finale of the lackluster Secret Invasion earned the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in the entire MCU, there’s a lot riding on Loki Season 2. What should be a slam dunk — the followup to a hugely successful and acclaimed Marvel TV show starring bonafide superstar Tom Hiddleston — now seems like another risk because of Majors’ involvement. For proof of how an actor’s off-screen behavior can impact on-screen performance, just look at Ezra Miller’s The Flash. While it’s true that the blame can be spread around in regard to The Flash bombing, Miller’s sketchy legal behavior was definitely a component in the overall failure of the film at the box office. If Loki Season 2 is as good or better than Season 1, maybe Majors’ involvement will be cringey at worst. But if Loki Season 2 is anything less than perfect, or anything like Secret Invasion, then Marvel could enter a place even more dangerous than the Quantum Realm: The Flop Realm.
Loki Season 2 premieres on Disney+ on October 6, 2023.