There are a lot of complaints about our comic book-dominated culture right now. Just ask Martin Scorsese. But one of the major complaints is this: All superhero movies and shows are almost entirely sexless. That’s about to be slightly corrected: The Boys, Amazon’s very adult contribution to the genre, shot some very blue footage for their next season. But Loki came…well, probably not that close, to be honest, to letting its antihero get at least a little randy.
A new behind-the-scenes look at the Marvel show, which wrapped up last week on Disney+, features a brief glimpse inside the writers’ room. An eagle-eyed reporter at /Film (by way of IndieWire) spotted the whiteboard behind them, filled with notes and diagrams — including this eight-point breakdown of a montage that never made it to the final cut.
1. Loki visiting different time periods
2. Doing crazy mischief, aka sex
3. Pivots to taking power
4. Collecting Infinity Stones
5. Has the Gauntlet, holds power, more sex, bi, alien, etc.
6. Alone in the throne room. He’s taken power but is infected with thoughts that it isn’t “real” because of TVA’s control over free will
7. Returns to the TVA, gauntlet’s power down, Mobius is waiting for him
8. Loki gives honest answers to Mobius. Mobius shows the sheer power of TVA.
You can ignore the first one, and numbers three through eight, although they’re probably of interest to die-hards. Let’s talk about number two: “Doing crazy mischief, aka sex.” It’s an incredibly vague pointer, but it suggests that a show that wound up featuring Alligator Loki and a Thor Frog (sorry, Throg) has a prurient heart.
Still, this is Disney+, not Amazon. Hot sex was never going to happen. So the closest Loki could ever get is an acknowledgment that Tom Hiddleston’s mischievous god is bisexual. And surely even that’s too rich for the family-friendly streamer that also houses Million Dollar Duck.