Marvel has set the Disney+ premiere dates for the second season of “Loki” with Tom Hiddleston and the “Hawkeye” spinoff series “Echo,” studio chief Kevin Feige announced during the Disney Upfront on Tuesday.
The Season 2 premiere of “Loki” will debut Oct. 6. A month later, in a first for a Marvel series, all episodes of “Echo” will release at once on Nov. 29.
Feige touted that “Loki” will be the studio’s “first ever second season,” returning to the story of Hiddleston’s god of mischief and his timeline hopping entanglements from Season 1. While the mogul also played up the return of costars Owen Wilson and Sophia DiMartino, as well as the appearance of Oscar-winning “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Ke Huy Quan, Feige did not mention that Jonathan Majors is also expected to appear in Season 2, reprising his performance as one of the variants of the Marvel villain Kang from Season 1 and February’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” Majors was arrested on March 25 on domestic violence charges and is currently awaiting a court hearing in June; he has denied the allegations.
Eric Martin (“Rick and Morty”) returns to write all of the episodes for Season 2 of “Loki.” Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (“Moon Knight”) took the lead on directing the show.
Meanwhile, “Echo” will continue the story of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), the deaf, Native American assassin first introduced as a reluctant antagonist in the 2021 Disney+ series “Hawkeye.” Feige praised the “incredible team of indigenous writers, directors and cast members” behind the limited series, including stars Zahn McClarnon (“Reservation Dogs”), Graham Greene (“Dances With Wolves”), Chaske Spencer (“Wild Indian”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Devery Jacobs (“Reservation Dogs”) and Cody Lightning (“Hey, Viktor!”), and directors Sydney Freeland (“Reservation Dogs,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”) and Catriona McKenzie (“The Walking Dead,” “Shining Vale”). The cast also includes Vincent D’onofrio as Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. Kingpin) and Charlie Cox as Daredevil (a.k.a. Daredevil); both actors first originated their roles on the Netflix series “Daredevil.”
The announcements confirm that Marvel is significantly slowing the pace of its Disney+ releases after unfurling 11 titles on the streamer in 2021 and 2022. Marvel had initially slated five live-action shows to debut in 2023: Along with “Loki” Season 2, “Echo” and the Samuel L. Jackson series “Secret Invasion” (which premieres June 21), the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” spinoff “Ironheart” and the “WandaVision” spinoff “Agatha: Coven of Chaos” were also originally announced for this year. “Ironheart” and “Agatha” are now expected to debut in 2024.
