How many episodes does Loki have? When it’s next out on Disney+, and how long the TV series is

How many episodes featuring this morally dubious character can viewers expect?

The first two episodes of the new TV series Loki have already proved to be a big hit with fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Episode three is set to drop on Wednesday 23 June on Disney Plus, with Tom Hiddleston’s seemingly immortal antihero poised for another action-packed round of drama.

But who is Loki and how many episodes are in the series?

Here’s everything you need to know.

Who is Loki?

Viewers don’t need a comprehensive understanding of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe to watch Loki, but aficionados of the comic book come-to-life love spotting clues and references to other parts of this fictional world.

According to Norse mythology, Loki is the trickster god, or god of mischief and has appeared in a number of Marvel films over the past decade.

From a bona fide villain in 2012’s The Avengers, to a self-sacrificing hero who died in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), it’s been quite the ride for this popular character.

Learning of his adoption later in life created quite the chip on Loki’s shoulder, especially when his brother Thor was named next in line to their father’s throne.

Since then, this morally dubious character has faked his own death to try and seize the throne (disguised as his father), opened up a portal to conquer the world and schemed to annihilate the human race.

Wait, Loki is dead?

Officially, yes. Thanos said “no more resurrections” when he snapped Loki’s neck in Infinity War, so how on earth is he seemingly alive and kicking now?

Marvel creators have circumvented this seemingly immovable obstacle by extracting Loki from an earlier point in the MCU timeline.

As a younger, less mature iteration, Loki is more unpredictable than his more recent appearances.

Tom Hiddleston attends a special screening of Marvel Studios’ series Loki in London (Photo: James Gillham/Disney+/Reuters)

The official synopsis accompanying the series reads: “Picking up immediately after Loki steals the Tesseract (again), he finds himself called before the Time Variance Authority, a bureaucratic organisation that exists outside of time and space, forced to answer for his crimes against the timeline and given a choice: face deletion from reality or assist in catching an even greater threat.”

What is Loki about?

In this new series, Loki is hauled before the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organisation committed to protecting “the proper flow of time”, to help them solve a serious crime and fix the timeline in exchange for his survival.

According to the trailer, Loki has created about 13 branch timelines, meaning there’s plenty of work to do, but this slippery character is not known for his compliance.

How many episodes of Loki are there?

Loki consists of six episodes, with the first two available to stream on Disney Plus now.

The show premiered in the UK on 9 June and, assuming the series sticks with its weekly release schedule, the finale is expected to air on 21 July.

Unlike other recent MCU shows, such as WandaVision, Loki launched on a Wednesday, with new episodes dropping on the same day.

Fans have speculated that this decision was made to avoid a clash with Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Marvel’s own Black Widow, which are both set to be released on a Friday.