‘Loki’s’ Sophia Di Martino on Sylvie’s search for normalcy and why Loki’s sacrifice is ‘not forever’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
At the end of “Loki” Season 1, executive producer Kevin R. Wright asked Sophia Di Martino where she saw her character, Sylvie, going after this. After all, Sylvie had just completed her lifelong goal of killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) and freeing the multiverse. The actress casually remarked that Sylvie might go grab a burger. “I definitely learned my lesson: Be careful what you say to producers,” Di Martino tells Gold Derby (watch above). “Even if you’re half-joking, they might end up writing it into the second [season].”
And that they did. The mid-credits scene in the Season 2 premiere reveals Sylvie’s location: She’s in a branched timeline in 1982 Oklahoma working at a McDonald’s. While Sylvie can literally definitely grab a burger and more there, the iconic fast food chain is also symbolic of what she’s now seeking: normalcy and sowing the seeds for a new life.
“I think it’s really interesting to see her in that world. McDonald’s represents so much. And in a way it’s her just testing out what normal human life might be and she’s like a fish out of water that first episode, trying to navigate calm, normal life where she’s not on the run. She’s not trying to kill someone. She’s trying to assimilate, but she’s an outsider and she’s definitely not normal. That was fun,” Di Martino says. “It’s comfort and it’s also just a way to make connections. You walk into McDonald’s and you see, like, a little cross-section of society and life and real people. It’s just her gateway to the world and the beginning of her trying to make a home and to make connections with other people.”
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Of course, just when she thought she was out, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) pulls her back in. Though she initially refuses to help him save the Time Variance Authority, Sylvie, furious that the TVA has not protected the branched timelines, joins in, never one to say no to a fight. “I think it’s inevitable she’s going to be back in the ring. She’s a natural-born fighter. She’s like a dog with a bone, like a cat with a bone. She’s never going to leave it if she thinks something is unjust or not right,” Di Martino explains. “When she first seeks Loki, I think it’s that thing of when you first bump into an ex and there’s just so much history. You’re so relieved to see them because you’ve been dreading it for so long. You’re relieved that they’re OK, but you’re also dreading having to have a conversation with them and also wanting to know why the hell have they come to find me. Something must’ve gone wrong somewhere. They want something from me. There’s just so much stuff that is unsaid when they first see each other.”
There is nothing left unsaid between them in the fifth episode. After the Temporal Loom explodes, Sylvie is back at McDonald’s, where Loki finds her again and she again refuses to help save the TVA as she wants to have free will. This time, she gets Loki to admit what he really wants: to have his friends back together. It culminates in the finale when Loki time slips to moments before He Who Remains’ death in the Season 1 finale to try to stop Sylvie from killing him. He Who Remains reveals that the Temporal Loom is a fail-safe and Loki’s only two choices are to destroy the Temporal Loom and start a multiversal war or kill Sylvie to protect He Who Remains and the Sacred Timeline. Loki chooses Option C: He sacrifices himself so his friends can have a chance to live their lives free of the TVA. After destroying the Loom, the God of Mischief revives the timelines and ties them together to resemble Yggrasil, the sacred tree in Norse cosmology, as he ascends to his throne atop the tree.
“I think she’s relieved that she’s got what she wanted: free will. She’s lost Loki as part of that and that’s been the ultimate sacrifice,” Di Martino says. “I think she doesn’t think it’s the end at the end of [Season 2]. She knows that that’s not forever. I think she’s almost like keeping an eye on the situation, like, this is great for now, thank you, well done.”
While there’s no word on a third season yet, the characters can obviously pop up anywhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Di Martino is not sure if Loki can hold it and the branches together for all time. “She knows that he’s gonna get fed up with that eventually,” she notes. “I don’t know about [leaving the tree] but start to meddle in some way or intercept what’s happening in some way that he shouldn’t be. I don’t know — the chaos will reign.”
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