Loki TV series release date: Cast, trailer and latest news on Marvel spin-off

Led by Owen Wilson as the enigmatic Mobius M. Mobius, they will enlist Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief after he cheekily cheated death in Avengers: Endgame with a little help from the Tesseract.

In the latest promo, released mere days before the show's premiere on Disney Plus, it is revealed that "someone is changing the proper flow of time" and Loki will be tasked with stopping them.

If you're counting the minutes until the new show premieres, be sure to dive into the numerous Loki trailers, teasers and Loki posters that have been released so far, as well as the Asgardian's very own Marvel Legends recap which is streaming now.

It seems unlikely that Loki's journey will end here too, with Hiddleston recently teasing that he is "excited" about Loki's future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and rumours of a second season already doing the rounds.

“At this point, I have learned that for me to have any expectations is futile and a fool’s errand,” he told Total Film. “Having said goodbye to the character once, twice, three times, I do not know what the future holds. But I’m excited to find out. I think we could never have seen 10 years ahead.”

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Loki is the first Marvel TV series on Disney Plus to launch mid-week, ditching the Friday slot favoured by WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier for a less competitive Wednesday release.

Here's all your essential information about Loki's TV series including release date, new trailer and cast. Plus, while you wait why not have a Marvel Cinematic Universe marathon using our Marvel movies order guide.

When is Loki TV series released on Disney Plus?

Marvel's Loki series will now premiere on Disney Plus on Wednesday 9th June 2021, following a surprise move to two days earlier than originally planned.

Tom Hiddleston himself confirmed the news, revealing that his spin-off show will be the first Marvel Studios original series not to be released on Fridays (breaking from the trend set by WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier).

No reason was given for the shift but some fans have speculated it could be to avoid a clash with Star Wars: The Bad Batch (releasing Fridays) and Marvel's own Black Widow, which will arrive on Premier Access while Loki is still airing.

Loki will consist of six episodes in total, each one clocking in between 40 and 50 minutes, placing the series at a similar duration to recently concluded thriller The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Assuming that the series sticks to its weekly release schedule with no interruptions, this means that the finale will likely air on Wednesday 21st July 2021.

It seems likely that Loki will return for a second season on Disney Plus, with industry trade Deadline Hollywood recently reporting that writer Michael Waldron will be involved "in some capacity".

Nate Moore, Marvel Studios VP of Production and Development, told IndieWire: "I think there’s a lot of storytelling in Loki that’s really irreverent and clever and cool, but also lends itself to multiple seasons in a way where it’s not a one-off.

"Tom Hiddleston, I think, is doing some of his best work on that show. It really is kind of amazing. I think of all the great stuff he’s done, but this show is going to show such different sides and really the true scope of his range. I think that show is going to surprise a lot of people."

Loki TV series story: What is Loki about?

Let's just address the elephant in the room: Loki is dead, isn't he? Apparently not! The anti-hero died in 2011's Thor only to be later resurrected in the post-credits scene. He also faked his death in Thor: The Dark World, in order to usurp the throne of Asgard. Thanos actually said "no more resurrections" when he snapped Loki's neck in Infinity War, but the God of Mischief has bounced back regardless – although technically, Loki hasn't been resurrected in this new series.

Instead, he's been extracted from an earlier point in the MCU timeline. You'll remember when Iron Man, Captain America and Ant-Man time travelled back to 2012 to get the Infinity Stone in Avengers: Endgame. In doing so, they found themselves in the events of The Avengers, when Loki had the stone and used it to escape after being captured. As a result, this younger version of Loki is more villainous than the version seen in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok.

An official synopsis has been released for the Loki TV series: "Picking up immediately after Loki steals the Tesseract (again)," it reads, "he finds himself called before the Time Variance Authority, a bureaucratic organisation that exists outside of time and space, forced to answer for his crimes against the timeline and given a choice: face deletion from reality or assist in catching an even greater threat." The full-length trailer also did a nice job at explaining this premise (embedded lower on this page).

When the younger version of Loki escaped imprisonment in 2012, he caused a break in reality itself and that put him on the radar of the Time Variance Authority, a secret organisation whose job it is to "protect the proper flow of time".

With TVA officer Mobius M Mobius keeping a close eye on him, the God of Mischief has no choice but to go along with the missions they plan to send him on – but you can bet he'll be plotting a way out very carefully all the while.

Marvel has released an official clip from Loki introducing the character of Mobius M Mobius, who will seemingly be a major player across the six-episode series (and perhaps even beyond that) – watch below:

While Loki stepped into a (slightly) more heroic light during the events of Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War, this incarnation of the character will be more overtly villainous and selfish.

"You guys saw [2012's original] Avengers, right?" Hiddleston told crowds at 2019's San Diego Comic-Con. "So, he's still that guy. And just about the last thing that happened to him was he got Hulk smashed. So there's a lot of psychological evolution that is still yet to happen.

"Kevin has generously shown me what his plans are – I can't tell you any of them – but it is one of the most exciting creative opportunities I think I've ever come across. This is new territory, a new world, new challenges, and I cannot wait to get started."

However, that does not necessarily mean that Loki will be a full-on villain during the show, with head writer Michael Waldron telling Entertainment Weekly that Loki will toe the line between hero and villain.

"I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," Waldron told EW. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"

Waldron has teased that we'll see more of Loki's powers also, telling The Hindu: "To have six episodes to explore his power has been so liberating because just from a ‘pure superhero abilities’ perspective, we wanted to explore the awesome stuff he can do, and also dramatically too.”

Loki's activities with the TVA are expected to span a wide timeline, with one previously seen image showing the mischievous antihero in what looks like 1970s America, standing in front of a billboard advertising Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

Much like a Marvel Doctor Who, director Kate Herron told The Hindu that the series "wasn’t just about going ‘anywhere’ it was about going ‘anywhen’,” allowing the show to explore far more of the Marvel timeline than Avengers: Endgame.

Meanwhile, a clip included in the trailer shows Loki sitting with a red-headed woman, who bears a striking resemblance to Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, while their surroundings look similar to the remote planet of Vormir where the spy sacrificed her life in Endgame.

It remains to be seen whether that is actually Johansson's Natasha Romanoff or simply a misdirect (some fans have suggested it's Sophia Di Martino as Lady Loki).

Indeed, it seems that this show could be even more unpredictable than WandaVison - which is no accident as the writing rooms for the two shows were right next to each other, which prompted head writer Michael Waldron and the crew to go even further than the reality-altering Marvel series.

"We’ve got to do something crazier! We’ve got to step on the gas, because we know that what they’re doing is so cool," Waldron told Total Film. "We tried to take chances every step of the way."

Having WandaVision as a guide will ensure that Loki will be bafflingly bonkers, but is far from the weirdest influence, as the show's executive producers told Entertainment Weekly that other inspirations included Mad Men, Blade Runner and, um, Teletubbies.

While the crew refused to elaborate how exactly the classic children's show influenced the series, writer Michael Waldron did expand on the Mad Men's impact, which was not just due to Loki seemingly travelling to '60s and '70s America.

"We're going to get to invest six episodes worth of time and get to tell maybe a more complex, layered character-driven story than you'd get to do in a big blockbuster where you've got so many characters to service in just a two-hour runtime," Waldron told EW. "That Mad Men influence as much philosophical and it was aesthetic."

Loki TV series cast

• Tom Hiddleston - Loki
• Owen Wilson - Mobius M. Mobius
• Gugu Mbatha-Raw - Judge Renslayer aka Ravonna
• Wunmi Mosaku - Hunter B-15
• Sophia Di Martino - possible female version of Loki
• Richard E.Grant - undisclosed role
• Sasha Lane - undisclosed role
• Cailey Fleming - undisclosed role
• Erika Coleman - undisclosed role

Of course, Tom Hiddleston is set to reprise his role as the titular god of mischief, who finds himself in his most challenging predicament yet when he finds himself in the custody of the Time Variance Authority (or TVA).

Hiddleston is celebrating a decade of playing the Norse trickster, with the Loki series arriving ten years after the character first appeared in 2011's Thor.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," Hiddleston told EW. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

Owen Wilson was also announced as one of the top agents at the fantasy organisation aka Mobius M Mobius, a character introduced in the first teaser trailer.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beauty and the Beast, Black Mirror) will star as TVA judge Ravonna Lexus Renslayer and has been featured prominently in the trailers released thus far, while Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country) will play another member of the organisation.

It has also been announced British star Sophia Di Martino has joined Loki's cast. In what role? We not yet sure, but some have speculated that she could play a female incarnation of the titular mischief-maker.

Richard E. Grant (Logan) and Sasha Lane (Utopia) have also joined the project, with some fans theorising that Grant could be an older version of Loki, but their roles remain unconfirmed for the time being.

Meanwhile, rumours are circulating that Jaimie Alexander could be returning to her Lady Sif role for the Loki series, while The GWW has reported that the show could introduce Sera as the MCU's first transgender character.

Loki TV series trailer

The first full-length trailer for Marvel's Loki formally introduces the world to the Time Variance Authority, a mysterious organisation that the God of Mischief now finds himself working for.

Disney has since unveiled a shorter teaser for the show that sees Loki once again utter a memorable line from 2012's The Avengers, where he was the main villain: "I am Loki and I am burdened with glorious purpose."

That makes sense given that this version of Loki has been snatched out of the time stream from immediately after the events of Marvel Studios' first ever team flick (as seen in 2019's Endgame).

Previously, Disney had released an "exclusive clip" – essentially a teaser trailer – which gave a more cryptic look at the upcoming series, spiralling out of a scene from Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel has also released a wild Loki poster featuring the show's cast and... a cartoon clock with arms and legs. Just in case you hadn't grasped yet that this show is going to be weird....

This is no marketing gimmick either, as a new teaser highlighted that this cartoon clock was actually called Miss Minutes, and that she acts as a guide to new arrivals to the TVA. Don't let her polite demeanour fool you however - there's a pretty harsh punishment for those who don't comply.

Time continued to be a theme in the next teaser, with Loki warned that "the clock's always ticking" - and presumably not just the cartoon one...

The Marvel promotional campaign is in full swing now, and we've been treated to a slew of new clips and TV spots - including this teaser in which Loki points out that the TVA are counting on none other than the God of Mischief to fix timelines in chaos.

Loki is yet to premiere on Disney Plus, but we've already received a behind-the-scenes featurette.

Watch below to see the stars and crew of Loki tease twists and turns in the upcoming series, with director Kate Herron saying we can expect "a mixture of tones and genres" while Owen Wilson adds that there will be "real mayhem."

This final teaser also promotes previous Disney Plus shows WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but also contains some brief new Loki clips - including a rather notable shot of the Marvel villain holding a flaming sword:

Is the Loki TV series connected to Doctor Strange 2?

It was confirmed long ago that the Marvel TV shows on Disney+ would be "entirely interwoven" in the MCU, thus playing an integral role in setting up the blockbusters of Phase Four.

There's been no official confirmation, but it has been rumoured that the Loki TV series could sit just before Thor: Love and Thunder in a list of the Marvel movies in order.

One theory suggests that Loki will return to the main MCU timeline with an alternate Mjolnir, ready to kickstart Jane Foster's tenure as The Mighty Thor.

Disney's Bob Iger has already confirmed the Loki TV series will connect to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which will also feature Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch in a key role following the events of WandaVision.

Given that Tom Hiddleston is not slated to appear in the Doctor Strange sequel, it is less clear how Loki could tie into the Marvel movie - but writer Michael Waldron has teased how the two could share some connective tissue.

Waldron told Total Film: "All of these stories, in their own way, are interconnected, and have ramifications. I think that certainly our aim with the Loki series was for it to have wide-reaching ramifications across the MCU moving forward. So, you know, was I having to clean up some of the messes that I made [with Loki]? Maybe so."

Who is creating the Loki TV series?

Community's Michael Waldron is head writer on Loki alongside Kate Herron as director. Waldron is also a writer on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is handy given the links to the upcoming Marvel movie.

Marvel's Loki premieres exclusively on Disney Plus on Wednesday 9th June.

While you're waiting, take a look at the best Disney Plus shows or best Disney Plus movies to watch now. You can sign up to Disney Plus here for £7.99 per month or £79.90 for a full year’s subscription.

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