Director Kate Herron calls from her childhood bedroom.
“My dad, bless him, he was never into Marvel before, but now he’s obsessed with it,” she says.
I might be like, ‘You have to watch it by yourselves and then we can talk!'” she laughs.
We had these big ideas in it — like, about free will and good and evil — and wanting to if we’re going back in with Loki because he’s so beloved, that it’s going to be a good story for that character, but some fresh terrain.
I definitely read a lot of them — I don’t comment on them — but I used to love Lost and Game of Thrones, and I was on Reddit, commenting, like, “Ooh, maybe it means this or means this,” and I think that’s the fun thing with our show, right? Our fans are so smart and it’s fun seeing what they’re getting right and what’s not right but is very interesting.
And I felt like, OK, how can we acknowledge this? We have aspects of the story that are there, so how do we build this into the story so it feels earned in the moment? I didn’t want it to feel like we were just wedging something in, but we had this beautiful scene where these two characters are being really raw and really honest about who they are, and I was like, “Well, it is a part of who he is and who they are.” For me, talking with Michael , it just felt like it was the right moment for that line.
Obviously, like I’ve said, it’s very personal to me, and I said it was a small step in some ways — because obviously, he’s just talking about it — but in the bigger scale of things, I’m like, oh no, it’s massive actually.
Well, in some senses, yes, and in some senses you’re never sure, right? Because For me, I was like, I’m telling Loki’s story, it’s a part of who they are and I just want to acknowledge it.
So, it was tracking, what’s familiar about this character from the Loki that we’ve seen over the last 10 years go from villain to antihero? And what is going to be completely different and completely different sides to this character that we get to now dig our teeth into? That was something really important to me and to Tom and the writing team, and it was really fun unpacking that and what his identity means.
The other challenges, honestly, were just setting up the TVA, because it’s outside of time and space and giving that a grounding and a reality and making that feel like a whole new exciting corner of the MCU.
We’ll do it in the second episode!” But what I love about her is that we’re seeing the TVA through Loki’s eyes and it’s, like, the status quo, right? And if our status quo is a Southern-talking, Roger Rabbit-style clock, the show is going to probably get quite weird.
Because across the comics, he’s super powerful, and for example, in the last episode, that’s what was so exciting to me about that, the oner at the end of episode 3 was that I’ve seen a lot of oners but I haven’t seen one with magic.
Because I get it, when he first lands in the TVA, they can’t use magic, so I know if I was watching, I’d be like, “What? No magic?!” But I think that’s the fun thing is, we still have three episodes to go and also it was fun to put him on Lamentis and see him using his powers in different ways.
The blonde that we associate with Sylvie is played in that sense, but it makes sense for her character within our story.
It’s almost like Loki — as in Tom Loki — he’s like, “Wait, how much of my life have you got? Who are you?” And I think that’s the real question is, who is she? So, we will discuss that as the show goes on.
So, I was like, “We’ve got to get her to read!” And we were just all blown away by her read of it.
Even just on the train, where it’s the end of the world and Loki’s solution is, “I’m going to have a party and I’m going to have a drink.
I love doing long takes anyway and I remember thinking, “Oh man, this sequence feels like the one that we should do as this oner,” because I want the audience to feel like they’re with Sylvie and Loki in this moment, and it’s also a moment where you finally start to see an apocalypse and it feels more real, because you’re seeing the horror and the terror that’s going along with that.
This is like real, big Hollywood filmmaking.” And I remember Kevin Feige was like, “You can take a rock home, if you want,” and I was like, “Oh my god!” So I have this rock.
Mhmm! And I’ll be like, “Yeah, guys, I did something.” They’ll be like, “What is this…?” But the foam rocks are genuinely amazing, because they look like real, heavy rocks, but they’re so light.
I just spoke to her about the part and was like, “This is a very small role, but if you’re interested, you’re very talented and you’re so funny.” And she was like, “You know what? That sounds really fun.
Or she can be the new Stan Lee and cameo in every MCU project.
I thought of one word, but then I’m like, it’s spoiler-y, so I can’t say that.