Fans were caught off guard by the intro to the Season 1 finale of Loki, which repurposed quotes from some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest names and several real-life figures including Maya Angelou, Nelson Mandela, Neil Armstrong and Malala Yousafzai.
As we journeyed towards the Citadel at the End of Time in a sweeping opening shot, it hammered home the consequences of what Tom Hiddleston’s title hero and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie were about to do, with the fate of every reality in the multiverse resting in the hands of a self-centered narcissist and a variant driven almost entirely by revenge.
Obviously, things went south from the second Sylvie went rogue and plunged her dagger into the heart of He Who Remains, and the consequences for the rest of the MCU are going to be massive. In a new interview, Loki director Kate Herron explained the significance of the finale’s first scene, and revealed the voiceovers from past films was Kevin Feige’s idea.
“I had this weird idea where I remember saying to my editor, Emma McCleave, I was like, ‘Oh, can we add a baby crying or the sounds of the city? And it’s like we just hear life’. So her, me, and Kevin Wright got really into that. So we were adding all of these different sounds into the timeline. We also had quotes from just life, not Marvel. Then, we showed that cut to Kevin Feige and the rest of the team. They all thought it was cool, and then Kevin Feige was like, ‘Oh, do you know what? We’ve never done quotes on the Marvel logo before’. So, we thought that was cool and we added the quotes to the Marvel logo intro. Then, me, Kevin Wright, Emma, and Sarah Bennett, Emma’s assistant, decided to just put the MCU quotes across the whole thing.
The intro went down a storm online, with many viewers getting more than a little emotional at Loki‘s trip down memory lane, and it just goes to show how much Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer has his finger on the pulse of the fanbase, knowing exactly the reaction it would generate.
Feige knows the franchise and its audience like the back of his hand, so of course he would be the one to come up with the surprisingly moving intro. It set things up nicely for what followed, tying the multiverse back into the MCU’s rich history while also outlining that anything can happen from here on out thanks to the events of Loki‘s final episode.
