Who would have thought when MICHAEL WALDRON began his career in television and film as an intern on Rick and Morty that he would now be given a set of keys to the kingdom of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as head writer and Executive Producer of the acclaimed Disney+ series, LOKI. Certainly not Michael Waldron himself. And that’s just the beginning for Waldron as after LOKI, he was then tasked as the screenwriter for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, directed by Sam Raimi, not to mention writing the upcoming Kevin Feige-produced Star Wars film.
As LOKI takes the world by storm with just the first of its six-episode run on Disney+ having aired at the time of this interview, Waldron and his team, including director Kate Herron, do a deep dive into the Time Variance Authority, the agency which monitors realities throughout the multiverse while doing its best to keep the temporal flow in check as it is destined. But what happens when the God of Mischief himself, LOKI, alters that temporal flow and creates variant timelines? With Avengers: Endgame we got our first taste of altering time with the Infinity Stones and the Avengers takedown of Thanos. With LOKI the series, we pick up Loki’s story in 2012 and the point at which he stole the tesseract (inside of which was an Infinity Stone) and disappeared, thus opening up the world for the LOKI series. Just imagine the mischief that Loki can create! And imaging that mischief is exactly what Michael Waldron and the team behind LOKI do.
I spoke with MICHAEL WALDRON in this exclusive conversation diving into LOKI and all the madness, mischief, and mundane, discussing the creation of the world of the TVA, fitting the chaos of Loki into the precise organized world of the TVA, creating a TVA “bible”, the challenges and opportunities of time travel starting with defining “the rules” of time travel, creating a “foil” and partner for Loki with Mobius (expertly played by Owen Wilson) and mining not only that relationship dynamic but the emotional depth of all of the characters, melding fantasy with the mundane, working with Kate Herron, the visual cosmetics, and more.
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview June 15, 2021
