Loki Season 2

Disney+ has for the past 4 years served up a steady and stunning diet of epic adventure tv miniseries. We’ve blogged about a few of their Marvel series trailers in the past (including Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight). Their most recent offering is the second season of Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston.

In the opening 7 seconds of the trailer we hear a new 7-note descending melodic motif played by a voice-like synthesizer which gradually detunes. Owen Wilson’s character Mobius is seeking advice from a technical expert about Loki’s problem of uncontrollably slipping between universes. After Loki’s body glitches and disappears (timeslipping), at 0.18 the first 5 notes of our earlier melodic motif return.

Sonically the trailer shifts gears at 0:35. With a loud percussive strike on a woodblock, we see the Marvel Studios logo appear against a red background. The logo drifts backwards onscreen as layers of brass notes slide downwards.

We cut back to a shot of Loki’s body timeslipping as a pounding cinematic bass drum gives us a steady pulse starting at 0:38. From 0:38-0:41, the first 6 bass drum notes here support movement onscreen timed exactly to the beat for each note. This sequence builds to a synch (0:49) at the moment when Loki uses a device to uncover a massive statue of the mysterious “He Who Remains” character from the end of Season 1. In this sequence tension is added to the pulsing drum by way of a jolting orchestral stab at 0:41 and another brass glissando (rising this time) at 0:46.

If the trailer’s use of orchestral special effects up to this point hadn’t already put us squarely in the realm of classic sci-fi film scores, the arrival of the theremin at 0:56 leaves us with no doubt. The main 7-notes melody is now passed back and forth between theremin and a staccato music-box type of tone, which is filled out with some delay effects. Notice how the end of the four-bar phrase at 1:03 cleverly aligns at two synch points: Loki fires a green laser blast out of his hands on beat four and the laser strikes his victim immediately afterwards on the downbeat.

We continue upping the musical ante, with a drumroll into 1.11 where we hear a Hans Zimmer-esque heavy orchestral brass and strings delivering a slow 3-note descending unison line. In the ensuing section the action synch points continue in quick succession, with one particularly nice example arriving at 1:24, over the space of 3 eighth notes that finish the phrase: we see (and hear) Loki light a match, someone in a suit trips and falls to the floor, and a fiery orange sphere crashes to the floor, all coordinated exactly with the beat. The theremin has the main melody on repeat at this point.

So now, the remaining trailer essentials to get us to a sonic climax are some triplets and a ticking clock, and the trailer does not disappoint. A ticking clock would be a non-negotiable here, given this series’ plot revolves around the idea of glitches in a universal timeline. As we lead up to the call-out text “The timeline is running out” at 1:40, we hear a short but sonically prominent ticking clock tone at 1:36. The triplets arrive at 2:00, leading us to a musical pause at 2:04 as Loki delivers what appears to be a final line, the obligatory turn phrase, while the brass section takes our main melodic motif for a spin.

If you thought the trailer was over at this point (2:12), so did I. But, in keeping with the tradition of comedy trailers which often close with a bonus one-liner, we cut to Owen Wilson one last time here, but this is followed by an even more intense musical flourish featuring more orchestral special effects, triplets and ticking clocks, accompanied by rapid-fire clips from the series. Thus the trailer sonically sets us up well for the continuation of the saga.

Loki Season 2 arrives on Disney+ October 5.

— Jack Hui Litster