Loki has officially been declared Disney+'s biggest debut yet. Disney+ arrived in late 2019 with the promise that it would be the perfect home for franchises like Star Wars and Marvel. Since its launch, the streaming service has seen the debuts of high-profile shows like The Mandalorian and WandaVision, with several more on the way. Loki, which arrived last week after much anticipation, is just the latest project to emerge from the MCU as it finally settles into its Phase 4. After only one episode, the series is enjoying some very favorable buzz.

Loki stars Tom Hiddleston as the titular trickster, now stepping into the spotlight for the very first time. As opposed to focusing on the Loki who has journeyed from Thor to his death in Avengers: Infinity War, the show picks up with the 2012 Loki who escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame. His meddling with the timeline gets him into trouble with the Time Variance Authority, an organization tasked with preventing the creation of a multiverse. As the first episode of Loki revealed, the God of Mischief will be teaming up with TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) to hunt a dangerous time-hopping variant.

Related: Who Is The [SPOILER] Variant? Marvel Show Villain Explained

Loki bucked tradition by debuting on Wednesday as opposed to Friday, but that move doesn't appear to have impacted its arrival at all. According to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Loki scored the most watched premiere on Disney+ within its opening week (via IGN). This includes the debuts of non-Marvel shows like The Mandalorian, which held the title of the biggest Disney+ original for some time. However, Chapek didn't reveal any concrete figures for Loki's premiere, so it's hard to say just how big it was.

Close-up of Loki in a promo image for the Loki TV series.

Last week, it was said Loki scored the biggest premiere of any Marvel Disney+ show, but now it's clear that its popularity goes beyond that. WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier dominated the service during their runs, and Loki has only increased that audience. On paper, it looks like each Marvel show is building upon the previous one, which would bode well for the many shows to come. However, it's also important to remember that Loki is a fan favorite character who has survived as long as he has thanks to audience enthusiasm. There was a real hunger to see a project based around him.

It also helps that Loki has earned glowing reviews; the series currently sits at a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews of the first two episodes. It remains to be seen if the current goodwill towards Loki will extend beyond this week's episode 2, but the buzz right now remains positive. Hiddleston's villain-turned-antihero has made quite the splash on Disney+, something he'd probably be quite pleased about.

More: Why Seeing The Infinity Stones At The TVA Breaks Loki

Loki releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.

Source: Bob Chapek (via IGN)

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