Many mysteries still remain about Marvel Studios’ Loki series on Disney+, which recently moved its debut date to June 9th and a regular Wednesday slot. But as we continue to ponder the potential show trajectory and surprises in store, a new promotional poster teases us with … an adorable animated clock?
Overall, this is a fantastic poster, and it’s the first to feature the show’s extended main cast beyond star Tom Hiddleston. We see Owen Wilson as TVA bureaucrat Mobius M. Mobius, and even more prominently, two of the women of Loki, Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15 and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Judge Renslayer. Both of them look formidable and badass.
Near Mobius and Renslayer on the right is a hooded figure holding up a lantern who will no doubt prove important. We also see Loki posing by a throne with his more traditional costume and mannerisms. But as you gaze upon this eye-catching poster, none of this is what, well, catches the eye first.
Okay then!
A charming, smiling cartoon clock, which looks like it hopped across the Disney+ platform from an animated feature and is having a great time, is, uh, incongruous with the rest of what we’ve seen and know thus far about the series. Or is it?
Loki’s central motif would seem to be time and time travel (and let’s not forget that “sacred timeline” stuff). The other characters on the poster are framed within a clock-like circle. So if you’re going to suddenly introduce an animated character into the equation, at least a clock sort of makes sense. And while it has actual arms, its lack of directional hands on its clockface points to time spinning out of control. We also know Loki concerns multiple timelines and possibly different kinds of multiverse realities and strange new worlds.
Could our timekeeping buddy maybe be hinting that the show might have significant animated components or even a whole episode? [UPDATE: Our lovely commenters have pointed out the character appears to be a TVA mascot that Screenrant names as “Miss Minutes,” and considering Loki show creator Michael Waldron’s Rick and Morty background, this suggests the cartoon mascot could indeed play a more extended role in the show.]
Live-action series rendered as cartoon characters or stop-motion figures for an episode for Story Reasons is a thing we’ve seen before on shows like Farscape, Community, One Day at a Time, The Blacklist, and Supernatural. It would be very cool to see a Loki episode that goes this route. And considering it seems like anything’s a go reality-wise on Loki, this could actually happen. Maybe he hops over to Toontown Land?
Theories aside, that beaming Miss Minutes is there to throw us for a bit of a loop and make Loki all the more fascinatingly “what the hell is actually going on here?” Like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the show is set to be a departure and a bit of an experiment for the MCU. As Comicbook.com quotes Marvel Studios’ head Kevin Feige: “… every show that we’re working on, I think is about creative swings for both Marvel Studios, the MCU, and television,” Feige said, going on to say of the Loki series, “Loki, we’ve not said much about but is intriguingly different, and I think we’ve called it a ‘crime thriller’—which is not something you would necessarily think of when it came to Loki.”
No, no it is not! But we are ready for a Loki-led Marvel crime thriller and all the cartoon clock friends it may bring.
(image: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
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