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Wednesday, June 9th was the long-awaited debut of the new Marvel TV show Loki on Disney+. This is a show that is part of Phase 4 of the MCU which takes place after Avengers: Endgame.
If you saw Avenger: Infinity War, you know that Loki died at the hands of Thanos at the beginning of that movie. However, in Endgame the Avengers had to do some time traveling and went back to the time that Loki first fought the Avengers in the Marvel Avengers movie to retrieve the Tesseract. In an odd turn of events, the Tesseract ended up in past Loki’s possession where he escaped capture.
This action caused that version of Loki to be a time-variant which according to the Time Variance Authority is not a good thing. They capture Loki and give the variant the option of being erased from existence or help the TVA fix the timestream that he messed up.
Loki helps the title character make the switch from villain to anti-hero. This is a position the character has been in before in previous Thor and Avengers movies. As a fan favorite in the MCU, Marvel has taken the character to a full-on position with this series.
As always, Tom Hiddleston is awesome as Loki the God of Mischief. He was made for this role. As a welcome addition to the MCU, Owen Wilson joins a Mobius M Mobius an agent of the TVA. Mobius has offered Loki a stay of execution in return for his help in repairing the damage he has done to the timestream. The chemistry between the two actors exemplifies their wonderful acting prowess.
Whatever the future of this show, the interesting concept of Loki going to different time periods in the MCU is plot point enough to make you want to watch. Loki is the hero given the task to help fix time and any variants or be wiped from existence. We can suspect that he will also have some sort of plan to get out of this obligation, however, Mobius and the TVA seem to have Loki’s number and appear to be much stronger than what Loki is used to deceiving.
As a tribute to the new Disney+ series, here is a list of the best time travel devices in all sci-fi and fun facts about the movies that featured them.
The Quantum Accelerator (Quantum Leap)
Fun Fact – Quantum Leap was originally supposed to be a Battlestar Galactica spin-off about time travel, but that idea was dropped, and they settled for a man inhabiting different bodies through time.
The Waiverider – DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
Fun Fact – Courtney Ford (Nora Darhk) and Brandon Routh (Ray Palmer) left the show because not only were they lovers on the show, but they married in real life.
The WABAC Machine (Mr. Peabody & Sherman)
Fun Fact – WABAC stands for Wavelength Acceleration Bi-directional Asynchronous
Controller.
The Hot Tub (Hot Tub Time Machine Franchise)
Fun Fact – Screenwriter Josh Heald had a running joke with some other writer friends in college that one day he would make a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine.
Phone Booth (Bill & Ted Franchise)
Fun Fact – Originally the time travel device was supposed to be a 1969 Chevy van but that was too close to the DeLorean from Back to the Future, so the director decided to take a cue from the lesser-known Dr Who and use an American phone booth.
TARDIS (Doctor Who)
Fun Fact – When William Hartnell, who played the first Doctor in 1966, had failing health he needed to be replaced so the showrunners came up with the idea of regeneration to replace Hartnell with actor Patrick Troughton. This remained the way the Doctors were replaced to keep the show running.
DeLorean DMC-12 (Back To The Future Trilogy)
Fun Fact – In the early drafts of the script, the time machine was supposed to be an old refrigerator.