Meet OB, Ke Huy Quan's quirky repair guy in “Loki ”season 2
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Welcome back to the TVA.
In 2021, Marvel journeyed into the multiverse with the decade-hopping Disney+ series Loki, an ambitious, trippy saga centering on Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief. The six-episode first season followed Loki as he teamed up with Owen Wilson's Mobius and Sophia Di Martino's Sylvie to investigate the mysterious Time Variance Authority, uncovering dark secrets along the way. Now, the hit Marvel series is adding a familiar face in its second season: Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, who joins the cast as TVA tech expert OB.
Season 2 (premiering Oct. 6 on Disney+) finds Loki and Mobius trekking into the deepest bowels of the TVA, seeking help from Quan's quirky repair guy. OB works in the repairs and advancement department, and his office is stuffed in the basement, a sprawling mishmash of gadgets and gizmos.
"His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, every thing that is running at the TVA," executive producer Kevin Wright tells EW. "He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running."
Gareth Gatrell/MARVEL Tom Hiddleston, Ke Huy Quan, and Owen Wilson in 'Loki' season 2
Quan, of course, is no stranger to trippy, universe-hopping stories, winning an Oscar earlier this year for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Wright tells EW it was celebrated Marvel casting director Sarah Halley Finn who first suggested Quan for Loki, having caught an early screening of the film. It was April, and Everything Everywhere was about to open wide across the country, so Marvel scrambled to make Quan an offer immediately — knowing that his schedule was about to fill up.
"I think Kevin Feige made a call maybe April 12, just to follow up and say, 'Please, please do this,'" Wright says with a laugh. "Little did we know, Ke is apparently already a giant Marvel fan and was a big fan of Loki season 1."
EW spoke to Quan in August 2022, immediately after his Loki role was first revealed at Disney's D23 Expo. Stepping offstage, the giddy actor admitted that he'd been keeping the role secret even from his family.
"I've been fantasizing about this for many, many years," Quan told EW at the time, "all the way back to when the first Iron Man came out. I saw all the movies in the theaters. I've seen all the films. I constantly watch on YouTube how passionate and enthusiastic these fans are. So to be up on stage today with Sophia and Tom and Owen and Kevin and to be on the receiving end of that… it's just been incredible."
Since the launch of shows like WandaVision and Ms. Marvel, Marvel has built a minor TV empire on Disney+, with multiple new shows still in the works. But Loki is the first Marvel Disney+ show to get a true second season, and Wright says he and the creative team wanted to continue to embrace the storytelling possibilities of episodic television. Season 1 took time to luxuriate in quieter, character-driven moments — like long scenes of Hiddleston and Wilson together, just talking. Wright promises that season 2 will continue to do the same. (In fact, he says, the unlikely buddy-cop friendship between Loki and Mobius is the season's "bread and butter.")
"In our [Marvel] movies, sometimes you have to keep moving forward very rapidly to get to the next thing," Wright explains. "Here, it's like: 'No, we can sit in these moments.' And dramatically, that's an exciting thing."
Season 2 will also find Loki, Sylvie, and Mobius coming up against a new but familiar nemesis: Victor Timely (Jonathan Majors), a brilliant industrialist and inventor living in the early 1900s. Like the menacing He Who Remains, who debuted in the first season finale, Timely is a variant of Kang the Conqueror, a dimension-hopping villain who takes many forms. Majors' version of Timely will play a major role in Loki season 2, even as the actor faces off-screen legal troubles.
"Victor Timely is somebody that we are very, very excited about," Wright says. "When you look at Kang, he has a very funny comic backstory. He has all these iterations. Timely was one that we've always wanted to do in Loki. And I think we're really excited about how that integrates into the season. It's a big part of the show."
Above all, Wright promises that Loki's second season will continue to embrace the weirdness of the first. The upcoming six episodes will zip throughout space and time, stretching from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to the fluorescent lights of a 1980s McDonald's. After all, this is the show that gave us Alligator Loki and sentient floating clock mascot.
"We made a weird show [in season 1], and people responded to how weird it was," Wright explains. "So, we wanted to push it further."
Loki season 2 will premiere Oct. 6 on Disney+.
Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story on Gen V — as well as all of our 2023 Fall TV Preview content, releasing through Sept. 21.
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