In particular, she recalls heading to theaters repeatedly with friends who shared her passion to see “The Two Towers” , the second installment in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on J.R.R.
“It was very silly,” the British filmmaker insists, revealing that one of her stories saw the heroic Fellowship traveling through a magical fountain and getting trapped in New York.
Herron, 33, is the director of “Loki,” the Marvel Studios series that follows the adventures of the titular god of mischief after he has been plucked out of time by an agency charged with maintaining the sanctity of the timeline.
The series, on which the self-described Loki fan also serves as an executive producer, is Herron’s highest-profile project to date.
Her love of movies manifested as the aspiration to become an actor, and she often goaded her peers into putting on plays or making movies using a friend’s father’s camcorder.
Soon enough, she was on the path to film school at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England, where she graduated with a degree in film production.
With no post-graduate roadmap to help her break into the industry, Herron eventually started writing and directing short films with “no money” while juggling a day job as a temp.
“One of the most exciting things to me about Kate is she has this amazing attention to detail,” says “Loki” co-executive producer Kevin Wright.
There is of course her love for Loki — the heir to the king of Frost Giants raised as the prince of Asgard who has become one of the MCU’s most beloved villain-turned-antiheroes.
“I was just so excited that somebody was chasing the project,” says Wright.
Herron’s enthusiasm for the show landed her a video meeting with Wright and executive producer Stephen Broussard.
“It was that thing of being like, ‘Oh, well, I’m not ready.
Taking inspiration from Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” and a SXSW keynote speech by Mark Duplass, Herron realized that she just needed to start making things.
It’s this tenacious creativity that connects the dots between her early fan fiction, her short films, her pitch presentations — and now “Loki” itself.
She helps provide digital content for the Arts and Entertainment sections and has also written for the Travel, Books and Image sections.