Loki Season 2 Trailer: Why The New Shadow Powers Look So Familiar To Naruto Fans
The long-awaited trailer for "Loki" Season 2 is finally here, giving Marvel fans a glimpse of what's in store for the titular God of Mischief. The new trailer finds Loki (Tom Hiddleston) on a journey through time alongside Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson), jumping through the past and the future in order to thwart the evil schemes of He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors).
Throughout this glimpse of Loki's journey, we see the Asgardian display some exciting new powers, including the strange ability to manipulate his own shadows in combat. This new power is on display about a minute and a half into the trailer, when two Loki-shadows restrain a man against a brick wall. But while these powers are certainly very unique in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they might seem very familiar to fans of the popular "Naruto" anime series since they function similarly to the Shadow Possession Jutsu technique of the Nara Clan.
In "Naruto," the Shadow Possession Jutsu technique allows a Shinobi to manipulate their shadows into different shapes, snaking across the battlefield in order to make contact with another combatant's shadow. If the user's shadow touches the shadow of a target, the target becomes rooted in place and unable to move their body, save for their mouth. Thus, the power functions as a method of interrogation, which seems to be how the Lokis use their powers in the trailer.
Though these powers are both used for interrogation, they have some important differences
While both Loki's shadow powers and the Shadow Possession Jutsu appear to be used for the same purpose in their respective stories, there are some important distinctions to be made between the two abilities.
Most importantly, the Shadow Possession Jutsu actually allows the user to manipulate the body of the target after attaching to their shadow, forcing the target to mimic the movements of the user. As such, they can remain completely still and lock the target in place, or (perhaps more sinisterly) force the target to perform actions they would otherwise avoid. Loki's powers instead seem to simply use his shadows as clones of himself, grabbing the target and holding them down like the two Loki shadows that grab the trailer's mystery character.
In this sense, Loki's powers function a bit more similarly to the forbidden Shadow Clone Jutsu, which allows a Shinobi to create copies of themselves. Hilariously, we've also seen Loki use this exact power many times in the past, creating illusory duplicates of himself to fool his opponents while preparing for a sneak attack. Despite the obvious differences between these Jutsu abilities and Loki's shadows, these new powers are certainly similar enough to grab the attention of "Naruto" fans watching "Loki" Season 2.