Disney+'s Loki Trailer Teases This Popular Comic Book Storyline
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is coming to Disney+, and pulling out all the stops as it arrives. WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier are already well on their way, and exciting future projects like She-Hulk and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special loom in the faraway horizon. Still, even in this barrage of quality superhero entertainment, it's safe to say that Loki stands out. This is not only because the upcoming series marks the small-screen debut of one of the most beloved characters of MCU's Phase 1, but also because the show looks absolutely bonkers in the best possible way.
The first trailer for Loki dropped on December 10 during Disney's 2020 Investor Day event, and it reveals that the miniseries picks up precisely where Avengers: Endgame left the alternate-timeline Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who stole the Tesseract and used it to escape after the Battle of New York. This marks the beginning of an extremely odd adventure through space and time, as well as the start of encounters with some truly strange people — up to and including Owen Wilson's mysterious time agent character Mobius M. Mobius.
What's more, the Loki trailer also teases that Disney+'s Loki will reference a very specific storyline from the Marvel comics.
The Vote Loki storyline shows the trickster god on a campaign trail
The Loki trailer features many peculiar scenes, but one of the strangest comes after the title screen, right at the end of the footage. You see Loki wearing a hodgepodge of a business suit and his normal attire, accompanied by a group of dangerous-looking people wearing interesting outfits from different historical periods. With his arms open, the god smiles and asks, "Come on, what did you expect?" while his companions raise their weapons at the unseen person Loki is speaking to.
The shot is particularly notable for the fact that several characters are wearing red-white-and-blue campaign buttons that bear Loki's name. It's likely that this is a not-so-hidden allusion to Vote Loki, a four-part story that came out in 2016 as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event. Written by Christopher Hastings, the story depicts Loki's attempt to become the President of the United States, and a plucky reporter's efforts to bring the villain's devious machinations out in the open.
It remains to be seen whether the scene depicted in the trailer is just a quick throwaway allusion to the popular comic book story, or if the trickster god is truly heading for what's surely the most peculiar campaign trail in all of fiction. Hopefully, we'll find out more when Loki arrives on Disney+ in 2021.