Loki Season 2 Finale"s Epic Temporal Loom Destruction Broken Down By Directors: "Trying To Honor Tom"s Performance"

:0:0

Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Loki season 2!
Summary

Loki season 2 concludes with a satisfying and unexpected ending, as Loki embraces his "glorious purpose" and saves the multiverse.
The finale successfully conveys the weight of the Temporal Loom's destruction through Tom Hiddleston's emotional performance, stunning visual effects, strong direction, and a fantastic score.
The ending of Loki season 2 has significant implications for the future of the MCU, potentially setting up new storylines and introducing a secret Avengers 6 villain or repurposing Marvel heroes as new versions of the Infinity Stones.

After failing to figure out any other plan, the Loki season 2 finale saw Tom Hiddleston's eponymous character destroy the Sacred Timeline, and directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are sharing how it came together. The latest season of the Marvel Cinematic Universe show saw the God of Mischief racing to find a way to save the Time Variance Authority and the multiverse from crumbling following Sylvie's killing of He Who Remains in the season 1 finale. It also saw Loki gain new powers in the form of time-slipping, with the season 2 finale finding him utilizing them to enact their plan to use Victor Timely's temporal aura and O.B.'s Throughput Multiplier to restore the Temporal Loom.
While speaking exclusively with Screen Rant for the episode, Benson and Moorhead opened up about the Loki season 2 finale's twist in which Hiddleston's eponymous character destroys the Temporal Loom. The directors praised the efforts of Visual Effects Supervisor Chris Townsend, as well as Hiddleston and cinematographer Isaac Bauman, with Moorhead in particular noting that they never let the camera venture too far from the actor to allow his performance to fuel the sequence. See what Benson and Moorhead shared below:

Justin Benson: I mean, really, the MVP of that whole sequence is our visual effects supervisor, Chris Townsend, who we started working with on day one. There were so many meetings where we're telling him what we're thinking and what we all want, and it was like he was psychic. I don't know how he was taking all of our fractured information and then synthesizing it into something, and then somehow communicating that to a bunch of amazing artists who did this amazing, amazing sequence. Really, it's the brilliance of Chris Townsend, and obviously, Tom, and Isaac Bauman. And Aaron, I didn't do anything. [Laughs]

Aaron Moorhead: One thing you'll actually probably notice in this sequence is — and this is us just trying to honor Tom's performance so much — the camera, it does get away from him a little bit, but the camera very rarely gets more than a few feet away from him. It's always, like, right in front of him, right behind him. It's very experiential to Tom — and, of course, our ensemble — but there's only a few shots that would be called pure wide shots, meaning it has no point of view, it has nobody with the camera. I think that was honestly just part of the philosophy we've developed since the very, very beginning, and actually pulled for Moon Knight and our indie films, which is nobody cares about the visuals if the characters aren't in place. Then, the visuals will wonderfully follow, especially if you have someone like Chris Townsend doing the visual effects. [Chuckles]

Loki Season 2's Emotional Ending (& MCU Future Setup) Explained Close The emotional Loki season 2 ending had big implications for the future of the MCU. Choosing to reject He Who Remains' notion that the Sacred Timeline is the only means of survival, Loki destroyed the Temporal Loom and used his magic to revive the various branches, holding them all together as he took over the throne situated in the Citadel at the End of Time. Despite seemingly being a sad ending, Loki instead seemed content being in the multiversal version of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, watching over the growing timeline branches to ensure free will is restored.
Given he is now situated outside of the main world, theories have swirled about whether Loki will be busy off-screen for the rest of the MCU. Hiddleston himself has seemingly indicated the Loki season 2 finale is "a conclusion" to the character's arc across the six movies and 12 episodes of the Disney+ show. Executive Producer Kevin Wright, on the other hand, has teased that while the show was always developed as a two-season story, the creative team have ideas in mind to tell more stories within the universe and with the characters they've introduced.
Even with viewers, theories abound as to how the end of Loki season 2 affects the MCU’s future. One theory points to a secret Avengers 6 villain being established in the show, while another suggests that Marvel heroes are being repurposed into new versions of the Infinity Stones. Fuel for the latter revolves around the colors and powers of specific heroes, as Loki’s signature color is green like the Time Stone, and he has the power to control time, while Wanda Maximoff’s reality-bending powers are red just like the Reality Stone. Ultimately, Loki may simply have stabilized the multiverse so that the Avengers’ upcoming conflict with Kang can be played out without complication.
Key Release Dates