Filmmaker Kate Herron on Loki’s bisexuality

The director of the superhero series feels it was important to acknowledge, as it opens the door for more stories

Amidst all the Glorious Purpose that is Disney’s Loki, is the grinning Alligator Loki. Director Kate Herron, laughs saying, “I have always wondered about his story.” Speaking from London over a video call, she says, “It is a tightrope — give people enough evidence that he could be a Loki, but also enough that he could just be an alligator, that they put horns on. I have been so intrigued by who Alligator could be. Hopefully it will be answered in the future.”

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While Herron is not directing Season Two, she has said she is eager to watch the show as a fan. Insisting she is definitely willing to speculate on the direction the show would take Herron says, “I hope all my speculations are wrong. That has been the fun of Season One. People thought they were getting one story but got something very different.”

Question of answers

The 33-year-old director says she would like to know the answers to all the questions that people were left with in Season One. “Questions like who is B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku)? What was in her memories? What is her past? Where did Ravonna (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) go? Where did Mobius (Owen Wilson) go? What will happen to the TVA (Time Variance Authority)? Where is Loki? Will Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) be okay? I will be excited to see these questions explored further and I am sure there will be many surprises as well.”

With Loki telling Sylvie in episode 3, Lamentis, he is into princes and princesses, he confirms his bisexuality and becomes MCU’s first queer character. “I felt it was important to acknowledge his bisexuality. It opens the door for more stories. I thought we can make it canon.”

Not just a kiss

Loki and Sylvie, who is Lady Loki, share a kiss which has also led to a great deal of speculation. Is it self-love, next-level narcissism or Loki being in touch with his feminine self? “I always read it as self-love,” the Sex Education director comments. “They are not exactly the same being, because they are from different timelines. They are the same person but from different realities. For Sylvie, the kiss is goodbye. She does care about him, but she has to do the mission. For Loki, it is pure love.Both of them do have these feelings and they are not quite sure what to do with them and what it means. It was nice to see Loki grow as a character, because of the love he found within himself, to see the good points of another version of himself.”

Loki seems to have lost his mojo as a hero—he was cooler as an anti-hero. Herron begs to differ. “We took him on a new journey. I would argue that in our show he does tip into anti-hero territory. The show is not so clean cut in terms of good and bad. That is the theme that runs through the show. Loki is taking down the TVA, but is it the right decision? He is even fighting for not doing that in the final episode. The fun thing with him was the sense that there can be actions that are heroic but what are the consequences and are they the right actions to take?”

Bringing his A-Game

Working with Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki and was also one of the executive producers, was incredible, Herron says. “He is such a lovely person. He was so involved in all the stories. The main thing that comes across is that Tom really cares. He has been playing this character for 10 years. Every day he came to set, you know he is bringing his A game. He is bringing all this passion and excitement, so it called the rest of us to match that.”

Apart from Loki’s bisexuality, the Lamentis episode, is also one of the most visually arresting episodes with Loki and Sylvie forming a tentative bond even as the moon they are on is being annihilated. “I loved directing that. It was something that we all as a team had been working towards. It was the first thing that my DP, Autumn Durald, and I worked on together, in terms of conceptualizing it from Bisha’s (K Ali) script. We wanted it to be impressive and make the viewer feel like they were with the characters for the ride. Bisha had this amazing description of the planet cracking and a whole city going silent. I wanted to honour that.”

The filming was towards the end of the schedule, Herron says. “We were obviously filming in a pandemic by this point, so all the actors playing the people in the city were isolating. It was moving because it was the effort of a lot of people and goodwill to make this work in the safest way we could.”

Loki is presently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar

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