Loki Season 2 is the next entry on the slate of upcoming Marvel TV shows, and many are excited to see the further multiversal adventures of the God of Mischief. Tom Hiddleston’s Asgardian trickster has a major journey ahead of him and, based on the first trailer, he’ll face a threat scarier than Kang the Conqueror. Luckily, he’ll have help from allies like Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius and Wunmi Mosaku’s Hunter B-15. The antihero will also be joined by a new character played by Ke Huy Quan. The new batch of footage quickly sold me on the Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomer, but I have one concern.
It would be an understatement to say that this past year and half has been incredibly eventful for Ke Huy Quan. The Indiana Jones icon made his triumphant return to acting after 20 years and received acclaim for his role as Waymond Wong in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Thanks to his work, he’d win an Oscar at the 2023 Academy Awards. He also starred in action comedy series American Born Chinese and is set to appear in Anthony and Joe Russo’s The Electric State. The surreal MCU show seems like a perfect fit for Quan, which is why I’m really hoping my worry doesn’t come to pass.
Who Is Ke Huy Quan Playing In Loki Season 2?
There was a fair amount of speculation regarding who the 51-year-old actor is playing, and the recent trailer finally confirmed his part in the superhero series. He’s playing the role of Ouroboros, an archivist who works for the Time Variance Authority. When “OB” appears on screen, he’s being visited by Loki and Mobius. The pair seek out the TVA historian in the hopes of learning why the demigod is seemingly blinking in and out of existence. OB diagnoses the condition as “time-slipping” and says it’s typically impossible to time-slip in the TVA.
Even though the sequence described above is the only time Ouroboros is featured in the trailer, fans do get a solid sense of his personality. He appears to be friendly and somewhat easy-going while also coming off as a somewhat curious and wide-eyed person. It may also be safe to assume that he’s highly intelligent, given his position with the time-keeping organization. One gets the impression that OB is in a prime position to assist the titular character, yet I’m still nervous for a specific reason.
Why I’m Concerned About The New MCU Character
Let me make this clear. I’m extremely excited that Ke Huy Quan is joining the MCU and is getting to play a seemingly fun character. What has me concerned is that the show may not be able to service him effectively. If the trailer conveyed anything, it’s the fact that this season has a lot going on. Loki and Mobius will apparently be traveling through time and getting caught up in a slew of shenanigans. Others like Hunter B-15 and Hunter K-5E (Eugene Cordero) will seemingly find themselves in different eras. Additionally, Sophia di Martino’s Sylvie and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer’s stories will progress.
The first season featured a fair amount of narrative threads and, this time around, there seem to be even more. With that in mind, I can’t help but wonder if OB will just be a small narrative cog in this story. Even the fact that he only appears at the beginning of the trailer has me wondering if that’s an indication of how much he’ll play into the proceedings. This fear could simply be overblown and he ends up having a sizable presence. But then again, there have been plenty of past instances in which the MCU hasn’t used actors (and by extension, their characters) in the most optimal ways.
There Are Notable Marvel Cinematic Universe Stars Who Haven’t Been Used Well
Marvel Studios has historically had very little trouble signing major talent for its productions. In many cases, it’s exciting whenever the company announces that a fan-favorite star has been cast for a project. Unfortunately, the brand also has a less-than-desirable habit of underutilizing some of the major names they bring into the fold. This has been apparent within the film series for years now. 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, did the bare minimum with John C. Reilly, and neither of the Doctor Strange films took full advantage of Michael Stuhlbarg. This trend is particularly apparent when it comes to stars cast as villains, like GoTG Vol. 2 and Vol. 3’s Elizabeth Debicki, Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Bokeem Woodbine and Ant-Man and the Wasp alum Walton Goggins.
It would appear that this method is seeping into the TV shows, in recent years. For instance, as great as WandaVision was, one can’t help but wish that an actor as talented as Evan Peters could've received just a little more shine. The delightful holiday-centric Hawkeye could’ve also done more with power players Vera Farmiga and Tony Dalton. And most recently, the polarizing Secret Invasion underserved MCU newbie Dermot Mulroney and even franchise veteran Cobie Smulders. To be fair, there’s a chance Loki Season 2 may be able to balance its cast more effectively but, with these past productions in mind, there’s still room for uncertainty.
Why It Would Be Disappointing If Ke Huy Quan Isn’t Well-Utilized In Loki
To put it simply, Ke Huy Quan is a fine actor, who’s proven that he has remarkable range. He can be funny and witty, generating a plethora of laughs in the process. Of course, he also has the ability to really make a viewer emotional. (I’m sure many are still thinking about that heartfelt monologue that he gives at the end of Everything Everywhere All at Once.) Quan is simply a multifaceted actor, and that’s an invaluable asset for any kind of production but especially for one as complex as Loki. During its first season, the series gave its actors a lot of interesting material to work with, which forced them to employ a variety of their skills as performers. Quan can surely hold his own alongside the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Owen Wilson, so he deserves the opportunity to do so.
One can only hope that the producers didn’t just tap an actor as talented as Ke Huy Quan to simply pop in briefly for a glorified cameo. He deserves much more than that, and anything less would be a disservice. For now, I’ll give Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and co. the benefit of the doubt until they somehow prove my concern is valid.
The second season of Loki premieres on October 6 as part of the 2023 TV schedule, so be sure you have a Disney+ subscription so you can watch.
