Loki Director Reveals How Fan-Favorite Scene Was Partially Improvised

Audiences have been enjoying the second season of Loki, which has debuted two episodes thus far exclusively on Disney+. The Marvel Cinematic Universe series has balanced surprising dramatic reveals with more lighthearted moments — and it sounds like one memorable scene was not completely in the script. In the second episode of Loki's second season, Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter X-5 / Brad Wolfe (Rafael Casal) bicker about several things, including Brad's work as an actor in movies like Zaniac. Brad refers to his work as "cinema" and "elevated thriller", and to some Marvel fans, it seemed as if the scene was an intentional dig at Martin Scorsese' comments about comic book movies. According to Dan Deleeuw, who directed Loki Season 2 Episode 2, that was not intentional.

"I love that it was an elevated thriller," Deleew told ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast in an exclusive interview. "That's what happens in all honesty, that's what happens. We had where we needed to go in the script, we had to know that Mobius figures out that why is Brad acting so jumpy? But we had Owen and Rafael there that day and were shooting that scene last, and they had the entire day to play. And so they would come out throughout the day and run the scene for me and say, 'Well, what are you thinking?' It's like, 'Oh, this is great. Just have to make sure this gets to this and gets to that.' And so we shot it and it was pretty much planned out by the time we got there, so I had first take, I'm like, 'Alright, let's do it straight. Let's do what we talked about.' Then the second take, 'Let's amp it up.' And then the third take, I was like, 'Alright, go for it.' And it was just Owen and Rafael just tag teaming off each other, and the cut that's in there now is with one little trim is the two of them just running. We cross shot it, so we just had it all together. And then you have the part where Owen smacks Rafael in the arm. It was great because Rafael didn't expect it at all, and they were just in it. And just the beauty of having two geniuses and two writers on your show."

What Is Loki Season 2 About?

Marvel Studios fan-favorite Tom Hiddleston stars in Loki Season 2, returning as the titular God of Mischief for another round of time-traveling hijinx on Disney+ on October 6th. Loki is once again joined by Mobius (Owen Wilson) as the two attempt to keep the timelines intact. After the events of Season 1 saw his variant Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) kill He Who Remains and unleash the wrath of Kang the Conqueror upon the Multiverse, Loki must once again embark on an adventure to keep reality from collapsing. Loki was last seen in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where he and Mobius were keeping tabs on one of Kang's mysterious variants. Loki Season 2 will continue the story of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

ComicBook.com's podcast Phase Zero will be recording live episodes every week following Loki season 2's new episodes on Disney+. Each week we will review, breakdown, and discuss the latest installment of the new Marvel series immediately after the episode's conclusion! The new episodes will be broadcast live on the Phase Zero channel on YouTube before being made available on all major podcast platforms. Phase Zero will begin its 5-minute timer to start the live show at 9:45pm ET on Thursday, October 5. You can subscribe to the Phase Zero channel now and turn on notifications to make sure you don't miss the Loki Season 2 bonus episodes!