[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Loki, Season 2, Episode 6, “Glorious Purpose.”]
Loki‘s second season may have paved a solitary path for the God by the finale episode (at least for now), but it opened a door of possibilities for Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), the Goddess of Mischief.
After jumping from apocalypse to apocalypse to evade the TVA’s capture, the “variant” finally found some brief peace after killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) at the end of Season 1, working at a 1980s McDonalds out of Broxton, Oklahoma. When Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) come looking for her with prisoner Brad (Rafael Casal) in tow.
This sweeps Sylvie up in the action as she’s compelled to combat the threat of He Who Remains variants and maintain the free will she meant to grace the multiverse with. Unfortunately, her choice in Season 1 doomed the infinitely expanding branched timelines. Ultimately, Loki decides to take on the selfless and glorious purpose of protecting the timelines in exchange for giving his friends a shot at life beyond the Temporal Loom’s allowance.
TV Insider caught up with Di Martino following the Season 2 finale to discuss Sylvie’s journey, her hopes for the future of her character, where she stands on Loki and Sylvie’s relationship, and theories about what she could do with He Who Remains’ TemPad. Plus, she details the Chicago World’s Fair action sequence and reveals which MCU character she’d like to cross paths with.
(Credit: Gareth Gatrell / MARVEL)
Sylvie ends the season somewhat positively as she can now do as she pleases. What do you hope is next for her?
Sophia Di Martino: Yeah, I think she got what she wanted in the sense that she killed He Who Remains, and she’s sort of free to go wherever she wants to. I dunno where she goes next, honestly, I mean the opportunities are sort of limitless, which is very exciting. I think she spends series two sort of testing the waters of a real life and trying to make some friendships and sampling what it’s like to live a normal life. But I don’t think that Sylvie would choose that forever. I think there’s something in her that enjoys the fight and being on the run and the excitement of what she’s grown up in. So I don’t know, maybe she goes looking for trouble. Maybe she goes on another epic adventure somewhere, but I don’t think it’s back to McDonald’s for her.
No, I don’t imagine she wants to work behind the McDonald’s counter forever. Speaking of that fight, Sylvie initially says she wants nothing to do with the TVA and Loki and Mobius’ efforts to save it, but she is consistently drawn to the action. Was that her desire for the fight or something else?
Well, I think it was because her home was under threat, so she just wanted to make sure that her new friends and new home weren’t damaged and didn’t disappear. I think that’s what takes her back to the TVA kicking and screaming. She really doesn’t want to have to go back there. She doesn’t care about the TVA. I think she does care about Mobius and about Loki, but that’s buried under a lot of other things. I think having a variant of He Who Remains turn up is just…. she’s always going to be ready for a fight.
She’s always got that sword.
She has. Yeah, she’s always ready to pounce.
Was that part of the fun this season? You have some great action sequences, from the return to the Citadel to the World’s Fair.
Yeah, I love all of that. And on the sets, [built by our] incredible production designer Kasra [Farahani], it always feels really real. Getting onto that World’s Fair Ferris wheel, was… I mean, it moved. It was crazy. It felt real. It was really cool and very claustrophobic actually when you’ve been on there for a couple of days and we were doing wire work and all kinds of stuff on there. So it was quite intense. But I enjoyed all of that. All the physical stuff, the choreography, working with the stunt doubles, and learning how to look badass.
(Credit: Marvel Studios/Disney+)
Yeah, the Citadel was a little funny this time around because Sylvie just gets to beat up Loki over and over again.
Yeah. It was an odd one. Obviously, I had to approach it as if I didn’t know that I was revisiting [the scene], whereas Tom had to approach it [as if] he knew what he was doing. So yeah, it was fun. I sort of had to forget series two and just go back into that moment, which was weird because Loki’s being quite odd in that scene. So there’s a few moments where Sylvie’s like, “Why are you being so weird?” She notices Loki’s being a bit weird. Then they freeze me for a while. I got a little break whilst they had a chat.
Speaking of the Citadel and He Who Remains, Sylvie does still have his TemPad. Is there a world in which she uses it to visit Loki at the end of time?
I think that would be cool. Yeah, I mean from Sylvie’s point of view, he sort of gets his throne in the end and I think that would sort of piss her off. So it wouldn’t surprise me if she wanted to go and see that he was all right, but also to just tell him about himself. I think she’s the kind of person who likes to pick a scab. She’s not just going to let things be. So I’m sure if any TemPad could get her there, it would be that one. Yeah, and I think you’re right. She still does have it by the end of series two.
When it came to the season’s time loops and time hopping, was it difficult to keep things straight?
For me, I just tried not to get involved in everyone else’s story too much because Sylvie’s very much on her own. So I just had to get my head around where she was and what she knows to be true and is happening, and then just try to sort of forget everyone else’s story because otherwise, it gets super confusing. So when Loki appears for the first time, it’s the first time I’ve seen him, and then when he appears again, it is not for Sylvie, it’s quite linear apart from when Loki then starts controlling his time slipping and redoing things. It’s the first time every time. It was a bit of a head scramble, though we were all mashed potato brain by the end of it some days.
(Credit: Gareth Gatrell / MARVEL)
Loki is given the option of killing Sylvie to save the sacred timeline. What does it say about their connection that he chooses to break the Temporal Loom and risk a multiversal war instead?
I think there’s actually a lot of trust there between them because Sylvie doesn’t kill Loki either at the end of series one, so it’s sort of like an unsaid rule that they’re not going to kill each other. And that’s also why Sylvie can go right up to his face and say, “kill me” then “I’m not going to give you my blessing if that’s what you’re waiting for,” she knows he’s not going to kill her. So I think it’s some kind of trust between them, even though they’d never admit it maybe. But no matter how far they push each other, they’re not going to kill the other one.
When it comes to their relationship, do you think there’s unfinished business there?
I think there are a million stories that can be told about Sylvie and Loki, and I do feel like it’s unfinished business because I mean. He’s sacrificed so much to go and be on his own and to give everyone a chance. But, like I said, I don’t think Sylvie would leave it at that. I feel like maybe Loki’s going to do something to start manipulating his job. He’s going to start messing around with the timelines, but he’s going to do something where his ego gets the better of him, and then Sylvie will probably be watching out for when he starts to mess up or something. I don’t know [for sure], these are my theories. This is what I can imagine her doing. She’s not going to just let him disappear into nowhere and control all of time forever without keeping a really close eye on him.
They keep each other in check.
Yeah, exactly.
(Credit: Gareth Gatrell / MARVEL )
In the fifth episode, Sylvie tells Loki he needs to write his own story like everyone else. We later see her crying in a record store as she listens to the Velvet Underground. What kind of emotions was she experiencing at that moment?
Well, I think because she had to meet up with Loki and tell him to go and find himself and figure out his purpose. That whole bar scene is about her trying to help him figure out what he wants. And I think it’s just big seeing someone again, that brings up so many emotions, isn’t it? After such a long time. So she’s probably had a sh*t day because of that. And then I think she finds comfort in that record store.
She finds comfort in her friend Lyle (Jason Pennycooke), and she’s listening to music that brings her comfort. But it’s that feeling when you listen to a beautiful song and you just cry, but it sort of feels nice. I think that’s how she’s [feeling] at that moment. And then the world crumbles around her and her reality is kind of deleted, which is just a lot. I think at that point she knows that that may happen, so she’s already mourning the loss of it happening before it even does, if that makes sense. She knows that it’s under threat and she’s scared of losing her home where she’s felt safe.
Well, she could go visit Mobius since he’s not at the TVA by the end of this season.
That’s true. Again, with Mobius, I don’t know how long he’d stayed there though, on his timeline. These people, these characters have experienced something bigger and more profound than [everyday life]. I don’t know if they’re going to stick around for that. When they know there are giant beasts out there to fight.
While the end of Season 2 introduces a new beginning for Sylvie and the other characters, it’s sort of the closing of a chapter for Tom’s journey as Loki on screen. Was there any emotional aspect to witnessing this behind the screens?
It was huge and it means so much to him. Owen and I were sat in on set watching him do the walk down the runway, and it was really emotional. It helped that there were really strong wind machines blowing, so all of our hair was blowing and everything was silent. And Tom was just doing this walk [against the] blue screen and the costume wasn’t even there because a lot of it is CGI. So it looks very different to how it does now, but it still had so much gravitas and you could tell that it was something monumental and something really special that we were witnessing even at that stage.
Speaking of special effects, what was it like getting to film the record shop sequence? Fans loved the “spaghettification” visuals.
Yeah, that whole scene was awesome. It felt like filming a music video or something. I just had to imagine what was going to happen. When you read it, it’s like, yeah, then everything’s spaghettified, and how are they going to do that? And I remember saying, “What’s it going to look like so I can try and imagine it?” And I think by that point, they did have some sort of computer-animated images for us to see some very early images of what it would look like. It was very different to how it turned out. So, it’s just a lot of imagination at that point and just pretending those things are happening.
Loki hasn’t been renewed for a third season, but that doesn’t mean Sylvie can’t pop up in other stories within the MCU. Do you hope to return soon?
Exactly, yeah. There’s a whole universe, a multiverse. I’d love to see Sylvie come back and see her do more. I’d love to see her in another epic adventure. I want to see her fighting giants and stuff, but yeah, who knows? We’ll find out.
If there was another character Sylvie could cross paths with, who would you want it to be?
Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) or someone like that. I think that would be fun. That would be a little witchy.
Sylvie is a Goddess, she can do anything.
Yeah, exactly. She taught [Loki] to enchant, so maybe he could teach her to control time. The possibilities are endless.
Loki, Seasons 1-2, Streaming now, Disney+