Entertainment
Upcoming Loki series was inspired by the Teletubbies, says director Kate Herron
The upcoming series of Loki had some rather unexpected inspiration – children’s television show the Teletubbies.
Actor Tom Hiddleson is set to revive a time-travelling variant of God of Mischief Loki for a new season of the Disney+ show this summer.
And this latest hint at what can be expected may cause some confusion.
Series director Kate Herron told Entertainment Weekly that her three main inspirations for the new series were Loki: Blade Runner, Mad Men, and the Teletubbies.
However, she refused to explain how the kids’ television programme got her creative juices flowing, telling fans they’d have to wait until Loki’s release in June to find out more.
The Teletubbies was popular worldwide from 1997 to 2001 and it was revived in 2015.
The characters – Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa Laa and Po – were brightly coloured with distinct antennas on their heads, and they were known for speaking their own special language.
They lived in a care-free land where the baby-faced sun was always shining against a backdrop of a brilliant blue sky.
The characters happily played along nicely with each other and were sometimes joined by the vacuum cleaner Noo-Noo, which is quite different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Meanwhile, an incredible fan theory about the upcoming series has made a link between the character played by Tom and a tragic moment from Avengers: Infinity War.
In the 2018 blockbuster, viewers catch up with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his adopted brother Loki straight after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, with Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his cronies causing destruction aboard the spaceship that was carrying Asgard’s last remaining survivors.
After Loki tries to trick the Titan by pretending to offer him his allegiance, before failing to kill him with his dagger, Thanos kills the God of Mischief by snapping his neck in front of Thor.
The scene was one of the most devastating in the MCU, given how much Thor and Loki had mended their fractured brotherly relationship in the third Thor film.
Marvel series Loki will follow the 2012 version of the character after he escaped the clutches of Earth’s mightiest heroes in Avengers: Endgame, when the team travelled back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones.
However, one Reddit user put forward the theory that this younger version of Loki might be the one who viewers witnessed die in Infinity War.
The user, who goes by the handle HelloLindseyHere, wrote in a post: ‘What if the Loki we see die in Infinity War isn’t our Loki? What if it’s the Loki Variant who’s going to star in the Loki show?’
They explained that ‘there was something’ about Loki’s death in Infinity War that ‘always bothered’ them, when he says to Thor: ‘The sun will shine on us again, brother.’
‘He’s confident in what he’s saying, and not in his usual mischievous way. He genuinely believes that he and Thor will be alright someday, but something in his tone isn’t quite right. He sounds comforting, but almost sad, as though he knows it won’t be happening soon. And just maybe, that it won’t be happening for him,’ they wrote.
The Reddit user said that they think the TVA may ‘decide to save the main timeline’s Loki by switching him out with the Loki Variant’, as Loki is referred to in the Marvel show.
‘Perhaps they decide that Loki needs to survive for future events, like how Doctor Strange knew he needed Tony to live. They would have known as well as Loki that he couldn’t defeat Thanos. So they decide to switch the Lokis,’ they stated.
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