Loki Creators Hoping Fans Ignore Major Controversy
With Disney+ and Marvel’s Loki finally back for its second season, audiences are more than just a little bit excited to discover what will happen next for Tom Hiddleston’s titular character. Since the first season premiered a full two years ago, a slew of negative allegations have surfaced about Jonathan Majors, who stars as Marvel’s latest big bad, Kang the Conqueror. In an interview with BuzzFeed ahead of the show’s episode one premiere, the show’s creators, Kevin Wright and Dan Deleeuw, revealed their hopes for how audiences will respond to Majors’ appearance in the show’s second season, focusing on the story and not his real-life controversy.
“My hope is they are engrossed by the story and not only his performance, but all the performances. There’s a reason why I said it’s the story we set out to make, it’s a good story and it’s really beautifully performed by everybody. So my hope is that people will embrace it and enjoy it, but I also understand that it’s a complicated situation.”
Loki creator Kevin Wright on how he hopes fans react to season 2
To put it flatly, the Loki creators are hoping that the other characters and stars will carry the show so well that audiences will essentially forget that Jonathan Majors is such a big part of the series. While he’s unsure of how audiences will “react” to Majors’ performance, Kevin Wright says that it’s their goal that viewers will be “engrossed” by the entire ensemble’s work.
While he notes that “it’s a complicated situation,” he still hopes that fans will give the show a chance to shine and earn the same respect that it raked in during its premiere season.
After being introduced in the first season of Loki, Jonathan Majors’s MCU character, Kang the Conqueror, was brought in as the franchise’s next biggest villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Jonathan Majors Domestic Abuse Allegations
The film dropped in February, and just a few months later, in March, the Lovecraft Country star was taken into custody and charged with a misdemeanor assault, aggravated harassment, attempted assault, harassment, and strangulation after his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari threw domestic abuse claims at him. Majors has since pleaded not guilty, and the strangulation charges were stricken from the case.
The news came as a shock to fans of the Loki actor, as between his work in the MCU and appearance in Creed III, Jonathan Majors’ career had skyrocketed in the last year. Still waiting to see his day in court, the trial was delayed a handful of times, leaving the fate of the actor up in the air.
Following the allegations, many MCU fans pushed back against Jonathan Majors’ involvement in future productions. By this point, though, he was already a leading player in Loki, with the second season finished and on the way. Should Jonathan Majors be found guilty of the allegations, it would prove to be a setback for the studios as Kang the Conqueror was primed to be a permanent player over the next few Marvel phases.
As for Loki Season 2, Jonathan Majors joins a cast that includes Season 1 favorites such as Tom Hiddleston (Crimson Peak), Owen Wilson (Haunted Mansion), Sophia Di Martino (Flowers), Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show), Eugene Cordero (Star Trek: Lower Decks), and Tara Strong (Rugrats).
Joining the cast are stars such as Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Liz Carr, Rafael Casal, and Kate Dickie (Game of Thrones). The second season picks up immediately following the events of the first, with Loki now searching for Sylvie (Di Martino) and attempting to further uncover the secrets behind the Time Variance Authority and Kang the Conqueror.
