‘Loki’s second season scored huge viewership on Disney+ upon its return last week.
Only ‘The Mandalorian’s Season 3 premiere this last March had higher initial viewership.
The show sees the return of Tom Hiddleston’s Marvel character, whose original season debuted in 2021.
After some less than thrilling reviews and audience figures for recent Marvel series such as ‘Secret Invasion’, Disney must be breathing a sigh of relief and offering up blessings to the God of Mischief.
Because the first episode of Season 2 for ‘Loki’, starring Tom Hiddleston, has racked up some healthy viewing figures.
What were the viewing figures for the premiere of ‘Loki’ Season 2?
The premiere of the new season, which dropped on Thursday, October 5th, has garnered 10.9 million views globally within three days of becoming available for streaming, at least according to Disney’s own calculations.
And the Marvel series was not just popular with viewers, but also critics. Season two of ‘Loki’ holds an 88% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it certified “fresh”. That goes along with a stellar 94% audience score on the site.
So clearly, people are happy to see the return of Loki and the Time Variance Agency. And we also enjoyed the latest episode.
In fact, the only series that has scored higher than ‘Loki’ is the third season of ‘The Mandalorian’, which landed on Disney+ this past March. Mando’s triumph is not really a surprise since there was plenty of pent-up demand for the return of the ‘Star Wars’ series.
‘Loki’ similarly benefitted from fan anticipation since Season 1 landed all the way in 2021.
The new season picks up immediately in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority.
Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Returning from Season 1 is Eugene Codero as Casey, a low-ranking TVA worker who was shown as a Hunter in a parallel timeline at the end of that first season but will be back in his original role to help Loki and co. Jonathan Majors, meanwhile, is once more playing another Kang variant, this time a 19th century professor named Victor Timely (first glimpsed in an end credits scene of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’) who has a strong connection to the organization.
Premiering on Disney+ beginning October 5th is the six-episode second season of the popular Marvel series ‘Loki.’
What is the plot of ‘Loki’ Season 2?
Following the events of ‘Loki’ season 1, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Producer and Marvel Creative Executive Kevin Wright about his work on ‘Loki’ season 2, the show’s time-jumping, if Loki is truly a hero or a villain, Loki and Mobius’ relationship, Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s on screen chemistry, introducing Victor Timely, and setting up Kang’s variants for other MCU projects.
‘Loki’ Season 2 producer and Marvel Creative Executive Kevin Wright.
You can read the full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interview.
Moviefone: To begin with, season 2 of ‘Loki’ deals with the concept of time and you also play with time within the story. Can you talk about plotting the second season and the challenges of playing with time?
Kevin Wright: They are immense. We thought, “Hey, we made a show about timelines and multiverse in season one. We’re going to make it even harder on ourselves this season by doing time loops.” It was something we decided really early on, Eric Martin, our head writer, and myself. It was really appealing. Eric had said jokingly early on, but also seriously, “We can land this. It’s going to be messy for a while because we’ve got to take apart the engine and plant flags in various places, but we can get there. It’s just going to take a lot of refinement and fine-tuning.” It was an exciting proposition because we didn’t want to come back and just repeat season one. We knew we couldn’t come back and play the hits, and we knew that the audience was on board for the weird timey stuff in season one, and that if we are smart about it and we make it digestible, they’ll be on board for this too. The trick was just always make it as serviceable as possible so that we can tell our character story. If it doesn’t get in the way of that, if it ever starts feeling like homework, or it’s confusing and not intriguing, we’ve got to recalibrate. So that was always the baseline for us.
MF: One of the questions season 2 asks is: Is Loki truly a hero or a villain at his core? What is your personal opinion?
KW: I think to ever be the best version of yourself, you have to embrace all aspects of your past. Loki has a lot of things in his past that I’m sure would be seen as villainous. He’s been an anti-hero. He’s played completely in that gray. He’s had redemptive arcs. I think what we liked was putting him on the path to heroism and seeing if this character could get there or if it becomes too hard, if he backslides, or if he’s going to make the right choices. Because heroism gets very tough if you’re put in a position where maybe you have nothing to gain from it. So to me, it was about, could this character ever be the best version of himself because we all see the promise, and it feels like the audience is always rooting for him to get there. That was fun to build into the narrative itself.
MF: Can you talk about Loki and Mobius’ relationship in season 2 and Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s on screen chemistry together?
KW: It’s unreal what the two of those have captured. Look, I think the exciting thing was, people really liked them in season one, and it makes it very easy then to continue on to not only the detective work but the further exploration of these two characters. The great thing in season one was, Mobius disarms Loki in that first episode in the time theater by saying, “I see what you are. I’m not judging you. Let’s have a conversation.” He was very accepting in a way that I don’t think Loki ever had, and it allowed us to kind of get this version of Loki that we hadn’t seen before. So it just felt natural that we could continue to do it this season. But also that Loki hopefully could start disarming Mobius so we could learn more about him and what makes him tick. So for those guys, I’m sure every one of our writers would say it’s a joy to write for them. So it’s about giving them meaty things to dig into because they’re going to bring so much of their own to it, not just in performance, but character, dialogue, and everything. They take it and run with it.
MF: Finally, can you talk about the challenges of introducing He Who Remains last season, as well as Victor Timely this season, and setting up the different variants of Kang for other future Marvel projects?
KW: I think for us, it wasn’t a challenge. I think the fun thing was, we knew we wanted to do Victor. Victor was an idea that we were trying to get into season one, and it was just never going to be able to fit because there’s too much story. But it was exciting because the last thing we’re hearing is that war’s coming. All of these terrible things are happening, and then the most unexpected version of this guy pops up, and he pops up in the past. That was exciting. He was going to be an eccentric. I think for us, we were like, “Are we going to be allowed to do this? Do we have to go further and do the scary version?” It was nothing but embraced because I think it just allows for that much more dynamic storytelling going forward that this guy can be anyone. He can pop up in any form. That’s what gets exciting about it.
Launching on Disney+ on October 5th (with one episode), the second season of Marvel’s ‘Loki’ is a welcome return for one of the better shows to be produced by the company and maintains a lot of what worked the first time around.
And new additions to the story, such as Ke Huy Quan (who knows a thing two about acting in a multiversal story after ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once), add to the entertainment value.
The new season picks up immediately in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority.
Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophie Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
The ensemble for the new season also features (as mentioned) Ke Huy Quan, plus other new recruits Rafael Casal, Kate Dickie and Liz Carr.
Returning from Season 1 is Eugene Codero as Casey, a low-ranking TVA worker who was shown as a Hunter in a parallel timeline at the end of that first season but will be back in his original role to help Loki and co. Jonathan Majors, meanwhile, is once more playing another Kang variant, this time a 19th century professor named Victor Timely (first glimpsed in an end credits scene of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’) who has a strong connection to the organization.
Even without show creator Michael Waldron (who remains peripherally involved as an executive producer) and director Kate Heron, who was responsible for so much of the style and tone of the first season, it’s pleasing to report that ‘Loki’ continues to be a fantastically fun watch.
With Eric Martin, who was a key part of the team for the first season, taking over running the show here and the likes of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (‘The Endless’ and ‘Synchronic’ in theaters and already part of the MCU thanks to their work on ‘Moon Knight‘) inheriting directorial duties, ‘Loki’s second run happily maintains the quality and pulp fiction of the first.
Shouldering the heavy load of continuing the story after that universe-hopping cliffhanger, the new episodes (press were given the first four), throw us straight back into chaos and confusion of the Time Variance Authority as Loki (Hiddleston remains perfect in the role, switching between confident and frazzled on a whim), Mobius (Wilson, still a great counterpart for him) and others try to figure out what is really going.
There are several solid cast additions, but we have to single out Ke Huy Quan, who continues to enjoy a remarkable yet well-earned career renaissance. Off the back of his Oscar win for ‘Everything Everywhere’, he’s superb as genius technical whizz Ouroboros (“OB” for short) who maintains all the technology of the TVA from his cluttered basement lair. Quan fits in perfectly into the show’s world, able to make the humor work and delivering exposition without having you scratch your head or reach for the fast-forward button.
This is a show that knows how to use its ensemble and while the focus is usually on Loki, Mobius or the ever-snarky Sylvie (Di Martino continues to impress), the character love is shared, with some of the supporting roles (Quan and Casal’s Hunter X-5) given their own convincing stories.
Reason to celebrate the show and its title character’s return, then –– which has not always been the case for recent Marvel TV work (looking at you, ‘Secret Invasion’).
The problems with the second season are relatively minor –– though, again, we were only sent the first four episodes, so it remains to be seen if it sticks the landing, and whether it opts for the frustration of another cliffhanger.
There might be some checking their watches through the first episode, which somewhat has the burden of re-introducing the complex central conceit with all of its time branching, time-slipping and odd technology. Fortunately, later episodes pick up the pace and the story kicks into gear, though there is something of a whiff of familiarity occasionally as many of the plots involve a mission to find [insert name of object or person here] so as to avert [crisis X].
And in the annals of Obvious Product Placement, having Sylvie tracked down working at a McDonald’s must rank as quite the most ridiculous for a show as smart as this –– but then, Disney does love a good tie-in. What, no place for her at an Apple Store, with Loki-themed Apple Watches just waiting for eager consumers? Probably wouldn’t work with Loki’s retro futuristic aesthetic. But that’s a minor complaint.
More troubling is one aspect that ‘Loki’, even with all of its time-jumping couldn’t have predicted –– the more dubious (allegedly) aspects of Jonathan Majors’ personal life that complicate the experience of watching his work. His performance as Timely is good (it’s actually more entertaining in some ways than ‘Quantumania’s Kang), but it’s tough to separate what is going on legally from what is on screen.
Yet ‘Loki’s second season still represents one of the most inventive and entertaining examples of what Marvel’s team can do. Even with the connective tissue that is required to the rest of the MCU, this does a lot more than some more basic superhero stories and continues to proudly chart its own weird branch of the massive, linked universe.
Fans of Tom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, the rest of the ‘Loki’ gang (and multiverses in general), get ready to be happy. Because the Marvel Disney+ series about the character is back in just a few days’ time.
Yet Season 1 screened back in 2021, so what if you’ve forgotten some of the pertinent details and need a refresher? Never fear, we are here to help. Like the Time Variance Agency, we will make sure you are on the right track (and we won’t prune you out of existence, either).
Created and run by Michael Waldron (who would end up spending more time in parallel dimensions when he was hired to re-write Marvel movie sequel ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, ‘Loki’ picks up the story of Tom Hiddleston’s title character back at a time when he was very much more a villain than the heroic character he has become in the likes of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.
You’ll recall that Loki spotted a chance to escape custody at the end of ‘The Avengers’ when heroes such as Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) travel back in time looking for the Tesseract. Instead of them getting it then, Loki grabs it and uses it to transport himself away.
But he is picked up by agents of the Time Variance Authority, where he has been deemed a dangerous “variant”, a chaotic version of himself that disrupts the timeline that the authority –– or so it claims –– is working to protect. A bureaucratic, retro-futuristic organization that exists outside of time and space, it gives Loki a choice: face being erased from existence due to being a or help fix the timeline and stop a greater threat.
Loki ends up in his own crime thriller, traveling through time hunting a female version of himself named Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino).
Sylvie, as mentioned, is a female Loki Variant. Targeted for “pruning” (AKA removing from the timeline), she’s been fighting back across time and space, looking to discover the truth behind the TVA.
She’s causing chaos to attract the organization’s attention and ends up crossing paths with our Loki.
The two actually start to fall for each other, realizing their innate connection. But after figuring they could hide in apocalypses (as Sylvie has been doing), their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when they are brought before He Who Remains (but more on him later) and ends up killing him, shoving Loki into a portal.
She will be back for Season 2, so we’ll find out what happens between the two Lokis. Let’s be honest: “it’s complicated” barely begins to encompass this one.
One of the first faces that any arriving prisoner sees is Miss Minutes, an animated clock who cheerily greets people. Voiced by Tara Strong, this mascot provides information –– but she’s also got a hidden agenda.
The authority is overseen by the “Timekeepers”, mysterious creatures represented by statues in a hidden chamber that some at the TVA see as godlike. As it turns out, that’s a giant lie crafted by He Who Remains (again, more later).
The Timekeepers are androids created to control the TVA and its employees, who, it is revealed, were not specially created to work there, but were in fact all variants themselves, with their memories wiped.
Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson): An agent of the TVA who specializes in the investigations of particularly dangerous time criminals. He befriends Loki, and the two work the Sylvie case. But once he learns about his variant nature, he helps Loki and Sylvie battle his former employers.
Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw): A former TVA Hunter known as A-23, who rose from the ranks to become a respected judge; she oversees the Loki variant investigation. An ambitious, fervent believer in the TVA’s mission, she’s forced to face hard truths about the organization. And when they are revealed, she vanishes into a portal in search of free will.
Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku): A high ranking Hunter of the TVA determined to stop the variant that has been killing Minutemen troops. She’s among those who believe the Timekeepers are gods.
Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane): A TVA Hunter kidnapped and enchanted by Sylvie to reveal the location of the Timekeepers.
At one point, Loki is “pruned” and banished to an apocalyptic, ruined New York, and meets a host of other variants of himself, including Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) who wears a comic-accurate costume and has more extensive illusionary powers than Hiddleston’s version.
There are various others, including Kid Loki (Jack Veal), Boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei) and, of course, Alligator Loki (himself), who we can all agree is the best Loki.
That is being complicated for Marvel by the allegations surrounding Majors’ personal life, but he is back for Season 2, playing Victor Timely, yet another Kang variant. He has been somewhat downplayed in the promos for the new season, but we’ll see how much he appears in the show itself.
‘Loki’ will launch with its first episode (of a planned six) on October 6th. Will the producers announce a third season at the end of the second? Only time will tell…
The consequences of the studios and other big companies that make up the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) not negotiating in good faith with writers and actors are continuing to be felt.
We already learned that Disney and Marvel have been juggling their schedules for big screen output to accommodate films that are delayed due to the strikes (or completed projects for which they want talent to be available to promote).
Yet that is also having a knock-on effect on the various Disney+ series that the superhero-focused studio produces. Which is hardly surprising given the deep intersections between Marvel’s movie and TV output (and the fact that the shows are also seeing delays due to writer and actor availability).
Animated series ‘What If…?’, which explores variations on characters and stories, has a second season ready to go, but will now launch in December this year (an exact date has yet to be announced).
‘Hawkeye’ spin-off ‘Echo’, based around Alaqua Cox‘s deaf Native American character, is shifting from November to January, while ‘X-Men ‘97’, a revival of the 1990s animated show, will fly from this fall to early next year.
Perhaps the biggest move underway is for the series currently known as ‘Agatha: Darkhold Diaries’ (formerly ‘Agatha: House of Harkness’ and then ‘Agatha: Coven of Chaos’), now shifting to next fall, likely (probably a smart move) to arrive around Halloween 2024.
As for shows that were still in production (or post-production)? The likes of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ and ‘Wonder Man‘ will have to wait to gear up shooting again, while ‘Ironheart’ (featuring Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, first introduced in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’), is stuck in post-production limbo, and does not currently have a launch slot.
‘Loki’s second season is still on track to launch on Disney+ on October 6th.
Marvel is no doubt figuring that the show –– which is still the most successful of the small screen MCU offerings –– will effectively sell itself. And it also doesn’t want to have the fall completely empty.
‘Loki’ picks up the story of the title character’s (Tom Hiddleston) journey around the multiverse, figuring out what is wrong with time and encountering variant versions of himself. Owen Wilson and Sophia Di Martino star in the series, with Ke Huy Quan a big guest star in this second season.
AMC scores waiver
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead.’
It’s not all bad news for those who produce TV series (and movies). Many independent productions have secured waivers to keep shooting or to promote their projects.
Perhaps the highest profile of recent examples is AMC, which is behind shows such as the mammoth ‘Walking Dead’ franchise and ‘Mayfair Witches’.
It might surprise you to learn that AMC Networks, whose AMC Studios produces most of its shows, is not an AMPTP member but is an “authorized” by the alliance, meaning AMC agrees to abide by any contracts between the AMPTP and industry unions such as the WGA or SAG-AFTRA.
The recent waiver from SAG-AFTRA (the union representing actors, which is currently on strike) means that three shows can continue work.
(L t R) Danai Gurira as Michonne, and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead.’
‘Walking Dead’ spin-off ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’ (surely self-explanatory for fans) can resume production while ‘The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live’ (which sees the return of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and Danai Gurira’s Michonne to the franchise) finished shooting before the strike but can have the cast head to the studio for post-production work such as additional dialogue recording.
Anne Rice adaptation ‘Interview With the Vampire’ will return to shooting in Prague after shutting down when the actors’ strike started. No other AMC shows are currently included under the waiver.
The reaction to Marvel’s most recent TV offering, ‘Secret Invasion’ (in which Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury tackles an uprising by dissatisfied members of the alien Skrull race) has been, it’s fair to say, somewhat muted. The reviews were not kind and the viewing figures (at least as far as Disney+ allows them to be known) were lackluster.
Marvel Studios (and Disney at large), then, will be keeping their corporate fingers crossed for bigger and better things from the return of ‘Loki’ to screens. And with Tom Hiddleston back as the title character for more chaos, our hopes are that this will deliver more solid entertainment. From the looks of the first trailer, it’s certainly promising.
This new season picks up in the aftermath of the shocking season finale when Loki finds himself in a battle for the soul of the Time Variance Authority. Along with Mobius (Owen Wilson), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) and a team of new and returning characters, Loki navigates an ever-expanding and increasingly dangerous multiverse in search of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and the truth of what it means to possess free will and glorious purpose.
Loki’s got more than just the TVA situation too, as following his trip to a parallel timeline, he’s now glitching in time and needs some help to sort that out. He and Mobius go to see mysterious new character OB, played by Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan.
‘Loki’ Season 2 will see with Loki and Mobius poking around into the past to learn more about Kang (Jonathan Majors), or the man who became He Who Remains, which hopefully brings a solution to the whole time-slipping situation too. Cue a trip to an old-timey fair, which seems to connect with the post-credits sting of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, with Majors turning up as ‘Victor Timely’. While Majors doesn’t appear much in the trailer, it does seem here that he will remain present in Season 2. Marvel is yet to comment on, or announce plans for, Majors’ ongoing role as Kang in the wake of his arrest and the abuse allegations against him.
With luck, the return of Di Martino’s Sylvie will also keep us guessing as to her real agenda (she’s pictured at one point in a McDonald’s uniform), while Miss Minutes is something of a bigger threat this time around –– literally.
‘Loki’ Season 2 will launch on Disney+ on October 6th. The streaming service has yet to announce how many episodes of the six-episode run will debut that day.
(Left) Mark Hamill in ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi.’ (Right) Tom Hiddleston in ‘The Night Manager.’
In the last decade or so, Mike Flanagan has established himself as one of the preeminent adaptation specialists when it comes to the work of Stephen King, and, especially on the small screen, has established his own identity as a master of horror with shows such as ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ and ‘Midnight Mass’.
He’s back in King territory for a new movie, ‘The Life of Chuck’ and has recruited Mark Hamill (who surely needs little introduction) and Marvel/Shakespeare veteran Tom Hiddleston to star.
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Mike Flanagan and Stephen King
In just a couple of movies –– following some original work of his own –– Flanagan established his King credentials. There was Netflix’s ‘Gerald’s Game’, which starred Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood in the story of a married couple attempted to spice up their relationship at a remote lake house when the husband unexpectedly dies while his wife his handcuffed to the bed. And he followed that with ‘Doctor Sleep’, his adaptation of King’s ‘The Shining’ sequel.
Author Stephen King. Photo: Stephen King/Facebook.
As opposed to his more straightforward horror adaptations, ‘Chuck’ will see Flanagan tackling something a little different from King’s canon, taking on the short story first published as part of the 2020 collection ‘If It Bleeds’ (which also featured ‘Mr. Harrigan’s Phone’, adapted for Netflix by John Lee Hancock last year).
The short story is split into three sections:
The story is split into three acts offered in reverse chronological order.
In Act 1: ‘I Contain Multitudes’, Chuck is orphaned and is brought up by his paternal grandparents, where his love of dancing develops. His grandparents always keep their house’s cupola locked, but eventually Chuck unlocks the room and sees himself dying of a brain tumor at the age of 39.
In Act 2: ‘Buskers’, Chuck sees a drummer busking and starts dancing. A young girl joins him, dancing with Chuck as a crowd surrounds them. After dancing, Chuck suffers a bad headache and walks away dejected.
In Act 3: ‘Thanks, Chuck’, Marty drives home and sees a billboard showing an accountant sitting at a desk, underneath it says ‘39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck’ as the world appears to be slowly crumbling. That evening as Marty visits his ex-wife Felicia, he notices Chuck’s image appearing everywhere. In a hospital, Chuck is dying surrounded by his family. Marty and Felicia see the stars disappearing, then blackness.
Hiddleston’s playing one version of Chuck, while Hamill will be a character named Albie.
Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine in ‘The Night Manager.’
Way back in 2016, long before he brought ‘Loki’ to the small screen, Tom Hiddleston was the star of limited spy series ‘The Night Manager’.
Shown on the BBC in the UK and AMC in the States, ‘The Night Manager’ saw Hiddleston as soldier-turned-hotel night boss Jonathan Pine who was recruited for a specific mission.
David Farr, who had previously worked on spy series ‘MI-5’ adapted John le Carré’s story for the screen, while Susanne Bier directed the series.
Now, Prime Video and the BBC are working together to develop a second season, also written by Farr. Deadline reports that there is no official greenlight yet, but things are moving swiftly –– to the point where a third season is also in the mix, presumably to secure Hiddleston’s services and to avoid his busy schedule.
What was the story of ‘The Night Manager’?
The limited series focused on British former soldier Jonathan Pine, who, after leaving the military, had found work as the night manager of a swanky hotel in Cairo.
A smooth, handsome type Pine becomes involved with a woman (Elizabeth Debicki’s Jed Marshall), who happens to already be the lover of an international arms smuggler called Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie).
Through her relationship with him, Jed has discovered information about Roper’s dodgy dealings. But when Jed ends up murdered, Pine, fearing for his life, flees, and starts working at a Swiss hotel. Four years later, Roper shows up at the venue, and Pine’s thirst for revenge over Jed’s death rises.
That, in turn, leads Pine to be recruited by British intelligence (with Olivia Colman’s Angela Burr among his handlers) so he can help take Roper down. But what follows is a dangerous game of deceit and intrigue.
Tom Hollander and David Harewood were also in the cast of the series, which won two Emmys and several Golden Globes. It was successful enough to spawn a Hindi adaptation that starred Aditya Roy Kapur as Pine and Anil Kapoor as Roper and aired this year in India.
What can we expect from Season 2 of ‘The Night Manager’?
The new series, also written by Farr, is set in the present day. Following Roper being taken away by the Syrians at the end of Season 1, Hiddleston’s Pine is informed he is dead two years later, and he has to face up to a new, even more deadly challenge.
Season 2 should shoot in London and South Africa later this year, but we have yet to learn who else might be in the cast around Hiddleston.
Tom Hiddleston fans, meanwhile, will be able to see him back on TV this summer with ‘Loki’ Season 2.
Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine in ‘The Night Manager.’
At this point, it’s looking that ‘Ballerina, the Ana de Armas-starring ‘John Wick’ spin-off, will feature a wealth of people from the main franchise, at least to help it initially.
The latest recruit for the movie, according to Variety, is Lance Reddick, who has appeared in all three ‘Wick’ movies, and will once again play Charon, concierge at the assassin-catering Continental Hotel.
“Charon is an indispensable part of the world of ‘Wick,’ ” producer Erica Lee said in a statement. “It’s great to know that Lance will continue to make his mark on this franchise.”
He’s just the latest piece of crossover casting for the movie, since Keanu Reeves (aka John Wick himself) is reportedly going to show up, though that has yet to be officially confirmed.
Keanu Reeves as John Wick in ‘John Wick: Chapter 4.’
More solid is word that Ian McShane will be Continental manager in the movie, while Anjelica Huston is aboard as The Director, who is the head of the Ruska Roma crime organization.
‘Ballerina’ will follow the Ballerina character glimpsed briefly (and there played by Unity Phelan) in ‘Parabellum’ and tracks a young assassin who seeks revenge against the people who killed her family. Which does feel apt for something set in John Wick’s world.
‘Ballerina’ has yet to chalk up a release date, though ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ is headed our way on March 24th next year.
(L to R) Michael Gandolfini and Alessandro Nivola in ‘The Many Saints of Newark.’
Elsewhere, we have a double dose of Marvel/Disney+ casting news.
Michael Gandolfini, who so far is best known for playing the younger Tony Soprano (the role his father James made famous on TV in ‘The Sopranos’) in ‘Sopranos’ movie prequel ‘The Many Saints of Newark’, is joining ‘Daredevil: Born Again’.
The much-anticipated Disney+ series will see Charlie Cox’s blind lawyer-turned-vigilante fully make the transition from his Netflix years (assuming it is exactly the same character, the jury remains out on that) to the MCU after popping up in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and his even more memorable recent run on episodes of ‘She-Hulk’.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ promises to re-ignite the clash between Daredevil and Kingpin, AKA Wilson Fisk, brought to hulking life by Vincent D’Onofrio on the Netflix show and now in ‘Hawkeye’.
Written and executive produced by ‘Covert Affairs creators’ Matt Corman and Chris Ord, the new series’ story is a mystery for now, though we do know it’ll span 18 episodes in its first season.
As for who Gandolfini is playing, Deadline has heard from sources that it could be an ambitious sort called Liam from Staten Island––though that, of course, could be misinformation to throw scoopers off the trail. And who knows if that’s also cover for another comic book character. We’ll know more when the series arrives in 2024.
The show, which saw Tom Hiddleston’s adopted Asgardian and trickster god fall afoul of a mysterious organization known as the Time Variance Agency after affecting the timeline by absconding with the Tesseract during ‘Avengers: Endgame’, ended in a cliffhanger, with Loki in a different timeline.
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are the main directors for the second season of the show, which has finished shooting and should be on screens next year.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Loki’ Season 2.
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Tom Hiddleston in ‘The Essex Serpent,’ premiering globally May 13, 2022 on Apple TV+.
Following his time spent poking around the multiverse as the titular troublemaker in Disney+ series ‘Loki’, Tom Hiddleston is heading back in time for Apple TV+’s new period mystery drama ‘The Essex Serpent’.
Adapted from Sarah Perry‘s 2016 Best British Book Award-winning novel, ‘The Essex Serpent’ is set in Victorian history. The story follows as Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) and her companion Martha (Hayley Squires) journey to the fictional village of Aldwinter in pursuit of Cora’s dream to become a paleontologist following the sudden death of her abusive husband.
While local tales of a massive primordial serpent capable of causing earthquakes are cause for alarm for most in the village and have led to a kind of collective paranoia, they’re precisely what draw Cora deeper into the fabric of Aldwinter’s community.
Cora’s passion and curiosity about the so-called “blackwater beast” is part of what makes her so fascinating to figures like Reverend Will Ransome (Hiddleston) and Dr. Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane). But the longer Cora spends in Aldwinter, the more it seems like her presence — along with the rumored beast’s — is having some sort of impact on the village that certainly seems otherworldly…
The clash between faith and science, and the simmering passions that underpin it all, certainly promises compelling TV, and the presence of Hiddleston and Danes leading a great cast (which also includes Squires, Clémence Poésy, Michael Jibson and Dixie Egerickx) gives us hope, too.
Anna Symon, who previously worked on series such as ‘Deep Water’ ‘Dark Matters’ and ‘Mrs. Wilson’ is the writer here, while Clio Barnard, director of movies including ‘Ali & Ava’, ‘Dark River’ and ‘The Selfish Giant’, provides the stirring visuals of windswept English coastal towns.
Apple TV+ has been putting out some solid programming in the last couple of years, rising to rival the likes of Netflix and HBO in terms of attracting big names and casting them in visually stylish and complex shows. Recent examples include ‘Severance’, ‘Slow Horses’, ‘Foundation’ and, on the movie front, the Oscar-winning ‘CODA’.
And while Hiddleston has been on the small screen recently as Loki, it’s refreshing to see him back in period drama territory with the sort of material where he got his start performing. Danes, meanwhile, has more been known for the likes of ‘Homeland’ of late, so her role of Cora is an interesting one. Trivia fans should note that Danes replaced Keira Knightley, who was originally cast in the role, but dropped out over concerns about finding childcare while shooting during Covid.
‘The Essex Serpent’ is due to kick off on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 13 with two episodes, followed by one episode a week on until the finale on June 10th.
Claire Danes in ‘The Essex Serpent,’ premiering globally May 13, 2022 on Apple TV+.
