Disney+’s series Loki, following the God of Mischief on an inter-dimensional adventure after the events of Avengers: Endgame, returns for its second season on October 5. Amongst the returning cast from season one are several new faces, no one more hotly anticipated than recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan.
The former child star will appear as a character named Ouroboros. Quan memorably appeared in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom before disappearing from screens for nearly 20 years. He worked as an assistant director and fight choreographer before reviving his career with Everything Everywhere All at Once. That movie, in which he played a number of characters, earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in April.
Marvel casting director Sarah Halley Finn and MCU mastermind Kevin Feige locked Quan into his role before Everything Everywhere was properly released. (Turns out the actor was a big Marvel fan already.) However, there’s been little word on what Quan would be doing on the show.
Here’s everything you need to know about Ke Huy Quan’s performance in the second season of Loki.
Quan plays a character called Ouroboros, or OB, at the Time Variance Authority (TVA)
According to Marvel, the TVA is “an agency that monitors all realities throughout the multiverse, minimizing temporal interferences. [They] manage renegade time-travelers, making them stand trial for the time crimes they commit.”
The first season of Loki followed Thor’s formerly villainous, now good-adjacent, brother after he stole the Tesseract at the end of Avengers: Endgame. He was brought to the TVA and sent after notorious “time criminal” Sylvie, who happened to be a version of Loki.
Though he was never glimpsed in the first season, OB is apparently a crucial TVA player. According to a preview in Entertainment Weekly, he works in the repairs and advancement department far in the basement, where his office is packed with gadgets. "His job is basically every piece of tech, every computer, everything that is running at the TVA," executive producer Kevin Wright told EW. "He either designed it, or he fixes it and keeps it running."
His character does not directly appear in any Marvel comics
Ouroboros, as played by Quan, does not appear in any Marvel source material. However, disparate characters with the same name have appeared throughout the years.
The most direct connection between Ouroboros and the TVA came in a 2005 She-Hulk comic featuring a judge named Ourobouros (slightly different spelling). He was a clone of a character named Mr. Paradox, who was a clone of several TVA bureaucrats.
Likewise, a character with the same name in a 1993 Doctor Strange issue resembled a snake eating its own tail. Rather than a person, this Ouroboros was “a conduit of elemental magic.”
It seems that Quan will be playing an original character with more ties to the mythological version of Ouroboros as opposed to any Marvel creation.
Ouroboros is “the snake that ate its own tail”
In ancient mythologies of Greece and Egypt, the snake that consumes its own tail (and sparked the famous phrase “the snake eating its own tail”) is known as the Ouroboros.
“[The Ouroboros] represents a being that is continually devouring itself, and thus reborn from itself,” Brittanica states. “A gnostic and alchemical symbol, Ouroboros expresses the unity of all things, material and spiritual, which never disappear but perpetually change form in an eternal cycle of destruction and re-creation.”
This concept gels with Loki’s general vibe, which is directly concerned with multiverses and alternate timelines, and their influences on each other.
In Norse mythology, Ouroboros is the brother of Loki (and gets killed by Thor)
As a character, Ouroboros is further tied to the God of Mischief through Norse mythology, where he’s known as Jörmungandr. According to their legend, Jörmungandr is actually the son of Loki who is slain by Thor during Ragnarök. He protects the realm of Midgard, just another word for Earth.
All of this has a tenuous connection to Thor comics, in which the so-called Midgard Serpent has appeared several times to battle the God of Thunder. The Midgard Serpent debuted in 1966 and has consistently reappeared only to be killed by Thor.
However, this version of Ouroboros was never positioned in the comics as being the literal child of Loki. Marvel scribes are well known for incorporating bits and pieces of Norse legend without directly parroting the tales.
It’s tantalizing to imagine how the new season of Loki will weave these disparate threads together. Certainly, Quan is on hand to do more than repair gadgets. Whether he will be a powerful ally to Loki or a feared villain, remains to be seen. However, based on the evidence, it’s safe to assume Quan will be a part of MCU series and films for a while to come.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/ZGxOnNK
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