In the global press conference today for Marvel’s Loki, director Kate Herron and writer Michael Waldron revealed the style of the drama-crime series was inspired by the films, Se7en, Zodiac, and Silence of the Lambs. The series does have a dark aspect — muted colors around the series — which Herron used to highlight similar film noir aspects.
“Stylistically, I would say like me and my DP [cinematographer], Autumn [Durald] were really inspired a lot by a lot of film noir films and you can see that in our lighting and how we approached it,” says Herron. “Se7en has a very heavy influence that’s referenced in episode 2 — a little needle drop which I’m sure fans of that film will recognize immediately.”
Writer Waldron agrees that is how he and his writing team took the series to be as well. “I think [David] Fincher, for sure,” says Waldron. “Zodiac and Silence of the Lambs were two specific ones we were really looking at a lot in the writers room.”
Marvel President Kevin Feige really credits Herron as the inspiration for Loki’s entire look and feel. Having wanting to always bring the Time Variance Authority to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Feige said it was really Herron’s vision that brought it to life.
“It’s really Kate’s meetings with us and her pitch that brought in all those references and allowed us to look at this in a slightly even different genre than we were anticipating,” Feige explained. “My answer is our inspiration was Kate and her pitch for this job.”
Of course, although the series is a crime-drama, the series doesn’t forget the humor that comes with having Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson on board. Coming from comedy backgrounds, Herron and Waldron made sure to include lots of humor. Herron credits it to Hiddleston’s wittiness and Waldron’s writing.
“We both have comedy backgrounds, so I think that we would bring that to our work that we do,” Herron says. “Tom is so witty. You can’t have Loki without the wit. We were always going bring that to the show.”
“That’s the joy of working with Tom. He can sell the comedy so effortlessly,” says Waldron, who has written for Rick and Morty. “I think maybe out of the gate, I was trying to step on the gas at the comedy — perhaps too much. I had to re-calibrate and shift this thing to a more dramatic place and that’s the great thing about this character. You don’t have to write jokes. Loki is gonna meet just regular exchanges — funny, fun, and engaging — just the way we interact. So, yeah. I think that was how we approached it. We can just trust Tom to do all the work.”
Loki premieres this Wednesday exclusively on Disney+.
