Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: disney, Kate Herron, loki, marvel, russell t davies, tom hiddleston

Loki Director: RTD "Has a Right to His Opinion" on Bisexual Reveal

With production on the second season of Disney+ & Marvel Studios' Tom Hiddleston & Sophia Di Martino-starring Loki getting underway much sooner rather than later, we've been having a lot more to cover about the streaming series' return than we were expecting. Previously, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige, producer Richie Palmer, and Loki & Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness writer Michael Waldron checked in to set the record straight as to who started all of this "Multiverse Madness" (more on that below). This time around, first season director Kate Herron spoke with Variety and responded to incoming Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies' (Queer as Folk, It's a Sin) harsh comments in response to Hiddleston's title character coming out as bisexual after being asked about his love life by Sylvie (Di Martino) in the Bisha K. Ali-written episode "Lamentis."

Speaking at a virtual Pride month panel for Swansea University last summer, Davies took issue with the streaming service in particular and streaming shows, in general, getting huge praise for doing what he believes was the bare minimum to truly tell LGBTQ+ stories. Concerned that "their condescension" will "damn us" when it comes to getting real stories brought to life, Davies continued, "I think huge, cleaning warning bells are ringing as the giants rise up with Netflix and Disney Plus especially. I think that's a very great worry. 'Loki' makes one reference to being bisexual once, and everyone's like, 'Oh my god, it's like a pansexual show.' It's like one word. He said the word 'prince,' and we're meant to go, 'Thank you, Disney! Aren't you marvelous?' It's a ridiculous, craven, feeble gesture towards the vital politics and the stories that should be told."

Speaking with Variety, Herron agreed that there should be bigger & bolder LGBTQ+ stories being told across all of pop culture while also expressing pride in what they accomplished with the streaming series (and reminding folks that Davies' opinion is just an opinion). "I don't disagree that there should be bigger stories being told, but — and I think he has a right to his opinion — I'm very proud of what we did in the show," Herron said. "Russell is a hero of mine, but like I've said, I hope that we did at least open the door and that more stories will come." Here's a look back at Herron's tweet not long after the original episode aired expressing the pride they felt in making Loki's bisexuality official MCU canon:

While most folks automatically blame Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange and Tom Holland's Peter Parker aka Spider-Man messing around with spells for flipping everything around, the trio makes it clear that it was Sylvie's (DiMartino) takedown of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) in the Loki season finale that really lit the fuse (as we saw from Sacred Timeline branching away like it was its job). Here's a look at how it all went down:

Feige on "Multiverse Madness" Beginning Before "Spider-Man: No Way Home" Happened: "There's always a method to the madness even in the Multiverse. The Marvel.com fans know that Loki and Sylvie did something at the end of [Loki] that sort of allowed all of this to be possible. He Who Remains is gone, and that allowed a spell to go wrong in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home', which leads to the entire Multiverse going quite mad in this film[Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness]."

Palmer Breaks It All Down for MCU Viewers: "If the events of 'Loki' never took place, if Sylvie didn't do what she did, this movie and the events of 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' wouldn't have been able to happen. It was the activation of the Multiverse, or maybe the reactivation of the Multiverse at the end of Loki that really led to the possibilities that you see in 'What If…?', 'Spider-Man: No Way Home', and 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.' At that moment, the Multiverse expanded indefinitely forward into the future, back into the past, sideways, left and right, to alternate realities we can't even comprehend. If it wasn't for Sylvie, we wouldn't be here right now.

Palmer: Sylvie's Act Broke Down the Barriers Between Alternate Timelines & Realities: "There's a slight difference between alternate timelines and alternate realities, but they do intersect, and they end up being one and the same. Our characters wouldn't have been able to interact with them, definitely not in the way that they did in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.'"

Sylvie's Actions Made Doctor Strange & Peter Parker's Bad Decision Even Worse: "What Kevin was referring to about that spell at the end of 'Spider-Man' is if that spell had just gone the way that Doctor Strange thought it would, even if Peter Parker messed it up so horribly like he did, it really still would have only affected people within our Universe. Doctor Strange wasn't considering that he had to, in doing that spell and setting it up, worry about all the infinite other universes out there that are filled with people that know who Spider-Man is. That shouldn't have been a factor. That was something that's not known to Strange and Wong at that point that they have to be factoring in all these alternate realities in the Multiverse."

"Loki" & "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" Writer Waldron on Addressing His "Problem": "It's cool in hindsight, You don't realize you're doing it as you're doing it because it's all overlapping and happening. In 'Loki', we set it out, 'Let's blow the lid off the Multiverse!,' since we know that's where the MCU's going. That was going to be the ultimate result of [Season 1 of] 'Loki'. We got to do that and we always joked, 'Then it'll be the problem of the 'Doctor Strange' [creative team]. Those guys will have to deal with it.' Then suddenly, I'm writing the movie and it's my problem."

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