Development

Development on a second season of Loki had begun by November 2020,^[1] which was confirmed through a mid-credits scene in the first-season finale, which was released in July 2021.^[2] In February 2022, Eric Martin, a first-season writer who took over some of series' creator Michael Waldron's duties during production on that season,^[3] was set to write all six episodes of the second season.^[4] Series' production designer Kasra Farahani was revealed as a director in the season in June 2023,^[5][6] directing the third episode in addition to co-writing it.^[7] Executive producers for the season include Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Kevin R. Wright, alongside star Tom Hiddleston, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, Martin, and Waldron.^[8] The third episode, titled "1893",^[9] had the teleplay written by Martin and the writing team of Farahani and Jason O'Leary, from a story by Martin,^[10] and was released on Disney+ on October 19, 2023.^[11]

Farahani was asked to be part of the writers' room and eventually direct the episode by Wright and Martin after they saw his overall involvement on the season. Farahani said that he was only going to be able to direct whichever episode was filmed last because by that time the design work would be done.^[12]

Writing

Farahani said the scene of Loki finding a diorama with statues at the Chicago World's Fair of Thor, Odin, and Balder the Brave was partially meant as a joke in which the audiences expect to see Loki's statue alongside Thor and Odin's only to see Balder's. The scene was also written as a way to reintroduce his relationship with Asgard to both the character and the audience and how "Loki has the potential to do massive, powerful, hugely impactful things on the scale that only a God can". He also said the scene was meant to acknowledge how dioramas at the World's Fair could come off as "pretty reductive" and racially insensitive by having Loki comment on it.^[13] Introducing Victory Timely in this episode allowed for "a lot of cool character drama to play with", particularly if both Loki and Sylvie could trust him.^[14] Farahani described Miss Minutes and Ravonna Renslayer's relationship in the episode as "rough-and-tumble", being allies to each other out of convenience with "no actual goodwill between them". Their "tacit truce" conversation at the end of the episode was done at the Citadel at the End of time so it could be "in the presence of He Who Remains, who's the architect of [their] animosity in the first place".^[13]

Casting

The episode stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer,^[15] Wunmi Mosaku as Hunter B-15, Eugene Cordero as Casey,^{[16]: 50:06–50:38} Tara Strong as Miss Minutes,^[15] Richard Dixon as Robber Baron,^{[16]: 50:06–50:38} Jonathan Majors as Victor Timely^[15] and He Who Remains,^{[16]: 50:06–50:38} Ke Huy Quan as Ouroboros "O. B.", and Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius.^[15] Also starring are Ross Hatt as Guy Pennyman III^{[16]: 51:20} and Nasri Thompson as a young Victor Timely.^[15] Series composer Natalie Holt makes a cameo as a musician.^[17]

Design

Wright believed the set for the World's Fair was larger than the one built for Lamentis in the first season,^[18] which Faharani noted forced the team to be careful and avoid going over budget while building it, mainly due to being a one-episode set.^[19] Faharani revealed that he always tries to create sets in his production design that suggest camera angles so that the cinematographer and director are presented with how they want to shoot a scene. Due to that process, Faharani was happy to get an episode with sets that he could guarantee would be filmed how he wanted.^[12] Returning to the Citadel at the End of Time set at the end of the episode, Farahani wanted to reflect how time has begun to affect it since the events at the end of the first season, with the set shown in a decaying state along with the rotting corpse of He Who Remains.^[13]

Filming and visual effects

Filming took place at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom,^[20] with Farahani directing and Isaac Bauman as cinematographer.^[7] The Prestige (2006) was one of many references Farahani and Bauman pulled from for the look of the episode, with Wright stating the goal was to make the episode "feel as naturalistic as possible" and avoid "a kitschy look and feel or a skewed version of what those eras might've been" that can happen when adapting past periods in time-travel media.^[7] The pair decided to use many wide shots in the episode to take advantage of most sets being fully intact, 360-degree sets.^[12] Bauman shot the episode with longer focal lengths on his telephoto lenses to produce a background that was "more swirly and distorted" with less clean edges; this was meant to mimic the "blurry and smudgy and kind of desaturated" photography look of the era.^[21] Visual effects for the episode were created by Industrial Light & Magic, Yannix, SDFX Studios, Rising Sun Pictures, FuseFX, Trixter, Framestore, and Cantina Creative.^{[16]: 52:43–53:00 [22]}

Music

The episode features a ragtime piano version of the Marvel Studios fanfare.^[15]

Audience viewership

According to Nielsen Media Research which measures the number of minutes watched by United States audiences on television sets, Loki was the fifth-most watched original series across streaming services for the week of October 16–22, 2023, with 525 million minutes watched,^[24] which was a 10.7% decrease from the previous week.^[25]

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 80% approval rating, based on 10 reviews.^[26]

Therese Lacson at Collider said the episode "does a lot of the heavy lifting for the rest of the season". She felt the introduction of Timely was "another sharp shift" from Majors, and liked the fact that each of his Kang variants had distinct personalities. Calling Miss Minutes' reactions to Renslayer taking a liking to Timely "a highlight of the episode", Lacson called it "delightful to see just how petty and selfish the little AI clock can be", and believed Miss Minutes would be "a key player" for the remainder of the season. The 1893 setting was also a highlight for Lacson.^[15]

Vulture's Siddhant Adlakha rated the episode 3 out of 5 stars, as it was "entertaining in spurts" and has "an era-appropriate gaslight aesthetic", but its key weakness was its "dramatic structure", because the characters' "objectives overlap in significant ways". It seemed to Adlakha that "every bit of conflict is based on a misunderstanding". The best part of the episode for Adlakha was Sylvie's ultimate decision to spare or kill Timely, "as her belief in free will collides with her murderous instincts to maintain that very same freedom".^[9]

Space.com's Fran Ruiz wrote that the episode "is fun to watch, but comes across as mostly busywork and a collection of set-ups." Ruiz highlighted that Timely seemed "innocent" and "insecure", but is an intelligent and "proud swindler". Ruiz described Timely as an "exaggerated" scientist caricature in the first half of the episode but felt that Majors brought "convincing humanity" as Timely in the second half by "juggling both curiosity and fear".^[27]

The A.V. Club's William Hughes gave the episode a "B-" rating, chiefly criticizing "character actions that don't build to any kind of coherent whole", including Renslayer's "leaping from motivation to motivation", while Loki's automatic goal to save the TVA "remains weirdly under-examined". However, Hughes praised the script and Majors' acting for planting the seeds for why Timely may become He Who Remains, due to Timely's "vision" and "deep desire for isolation, independence, and, above all else, control". Hughes also lauded DiMartino's acting as Sylvie for being "emotionally resonant" in exemplifying "an open wound desperately looking for both a place, and a way, to heal."^[28]

Gizmodo's Sabina Graves lamented that the show's female characters "all feel one dimensional so far compared to" the previous season, with the episode being "full of these bizarre moments putting the female characters of Loki at odds with each other, only aligning when they're scorned by the far more interesting male characters". Graves also criticized Majors' performance as Timely, stating that Majors "overly hams it up" as Timely, with the result being that "pacing gets thrown off in these scenes, with Majors cutting the momentum."^[29]

Accolades

Strong was named one of TVLine's "Performer of the Week" honorable mentions for her performance in this episode. The site felt that Strong's voice work added a lot to the "unnerving reveal" and that she had a lot of fun with the "delicious dialogue".^[30]