Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, streaming, TV | Tagged: Ke Huy Quan, kevin feige, loki, mcu, Ouroboros, owen wilson, tom hiddleston, x-men

Loki: Ke Huy Quan on Marvel Return, "Goonies" Inspiring OB & More

Ke Huy Quan on first crossing paths with Kevin Feige on X-Men, falling in love with the MCU & his Goonies inspiration for Ouroboros in Loki.

While Ke Huy Quan never went away in terms of Hollywood, he was looking to transition more to a behind-the-scenes role when he landed his biggest comeback role as Waymond Wang in A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), which garnered him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Then another huge opportunity came that found him back in Marvel, this time in front of the camera as lovable TVA engineer Ouroboros (aka OB) in the Disney+ series Loki, dramatically different than his time helping to develop fight choreography for 20th Century Studios' X-Men (2000). Quan had a lot to make up for lost time with the recent end of the SAG-AFTRA strike opening about the MCU secrecy, the Marvel crash course at Fox, and his reaction to the season two finale.

How Loki Became an Unexpected Return to Marvel for Ke Huy Quan

Quan recalled the process of casting and being at the top of the world before the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes started. "When I got the role of Ouroboros, we were in London for four months shooting and I couldn't tell anybody. I couldn't tell my family. The only people who knew was my wife, my entertainment attorney — which is my "Goonies" brother [Jeff Cohen] — and my agents," he told Variety. "We had the most amazing time, and I was so proud of it. I would fantasize about being all over the place with Tom [Hiddleston] and Owen [Wilson] and my 'Loki' family to talk about it. And then all of a sudden, Hollywood shuts down. It reminded me of when I got the movie of a lifetime, 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' I finished that with one day to go, and the entire world shuts down [in the pandemic]. But of course, the strike was very important for our union. I'm very proud of the work that they did. And I'm also super happy now that it's over and "Loki" gets to have the celebration it deserves."

The actor also reflected on meeting now Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who also happened to be working on X-Men at the time. "Ah! He was an associate producer at that time, and I was just an assistant action choreographer. It was right after I graduated from USC Film School. I was really nervous because I didn't know if I would have a career behind the camera and I was really grateful when I got the call from Corey Yuen, who was the action director on 'X-Men,'" he said. "When I walked on set, I was just blown away. I met this young man and he had this vast knowledge of this universe, and he was so willing and so passionate to talk to me about it. Because I didn't know a lot about Marvel. I loved Kevin Feige right away and, of course, many years later, when he became this huge producer at Marvel, I always wanted to work with him, but I didn't know in what capacity. We would see each other once in a long while. Little did I know that 23 years later, we get to work together. I'm just so thrilled."

Quan admitted to moving on before reconnecting with Marvel as Feige started Marvel Studio's long cinematic journey with 2008's Iron Man and getting hooked ever since. "I grew up in an era where you go into movies like 'Back to the Future,' 'Indiana Jones' — all those fun summer blockbuster movies, those big event movies. Those were my happy memories. Going to watch a Marvel movie reminded me of my childhood. Those movies are meant to be shared with a mass audience, that communal experience in a movie theater with 1,000 people. I just love them," he said.

When head writer Eric Martin approached Quan about the part, the actor identified how to make it work by channeling his previous work. "When I first read the script, I instantly fell in love with Ouroboros. You can see who this character is right away — his quirkiness, his humor, his passion for his job jumps right out of the page," he said. "In the process of trying to fine-tune how I want to play him, something dawned on me. I realized that this character is familiar to me. I think I know who he is. I have to go back 35 years ago when I play Data on 'The Goonies.' So many fans have come up to me, and the most asked question was, 'Will there be a 'Goonies 2'? And what is Data doing as an adult?'"

Quan explained OB in the most Marvel way possible. "This character of Ouroboros is kind of my answer to that. I view him as a variant of Data. What's really interesting is, on my first day, I'm in full hair and makeup and costume," he said. "I'm walking to the Ouroboros set. They built this amazing set on the second biggest stage at Pinewood Studios. I look up and I see the name of the stage is 'Roger Moore.' Now as we all know, Data loves James Bond. The character 007 inspires him tremendously. So I feel like there's some cosmic connections to this character and Data. Playing him was one of the greatest experiences I've had."

Most of the season two finale, "Glorious Purpose," involved Hiddleston's Loki trying to use his time warp to solve the futile problem of repairing the loom only to sacrifice himself and become the guardian of the sacred timeline in the end. "We didn't get access to Episode 6 until later on. When I read it, I was blown away, because it was not the direction I was expecting," Quan said. "I got so emotional because the character arc of Loki is one of the most beautiful arcs I've seen in cinema history. He started 14 years ago as a selfish villain, and to end in Episode 6 of 'Loki' Season 2, how he made this tremendous sacrifice without recognition. Nobody knows he did this, except the team. Nobody on the sacred timeline knows that he's given up his freedom, he's given up all these wants and needs, to be on that throne and hold everything together. That is just beautiful. I just love it. I just think it's so poetic and so beautiful. It's a perfect ending to a perfect character. For more, including how the actor processed the TVA technobabble in Loki, what he learned from Hiddleston, the dedication to practical effects, and his MCU future, you can check out the interview here.

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