The second season of Loki, featuring an intricate story that explores multiple universes and time manipulation, demanded a complex and innovative visual language. MCU veteran Christopher Townsend joined the Disney+ series to oversee an ambitious undertaking of expanding the distinctive visual style of Season One into a more grounded approach for Season Two.
Under his supervision, the visual effects team crafted the detailed architecture of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), brought to life landscapes and cities across multiple time periods, and conjured mind-bending time travel sequences. The three-time Academy Award nominee emphasized the importance of making the surreal feel like reality, seamlessly blending VFX with practical effects.
“We aimed to make [‘Loki’] feel even more analog than the first season, particularly in the production design,” shares Townsend. “We had the same production designer, Kasra [Farahani], who worked on both seasons and directed an episode in season two, so the continuity he provided was incredibly useful. We aimed to build upon everything loved about season one while making it feel even more grounded.”
Townsend earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Special Visual Effects, showcasing a meticulous blend of VFX and practical elements that create an unbelievable, fantastical world. With approximately 1,200 VFX shots, Townsend built ceilings on the sets to provide a sense of reality. The VFX supervisor was completing episodes later in the season as the second season began airing on Disney+.
“As we’re delivering episode one and it’s airing, we’re often still working on episode three and beyond,” explains Townsend. “It meant that we were in a constant delivery mode for the last six to eight weeks, which can be stressful.”
Townsend spoke with Award Focus about his insights into the planning and coordination required to bring the series to life, the process of selecting the right VFX studios for specific shots and leaning into long exposure photography as inspiration for the time-slipping sequences.
AF: For our readers’ background, how many VFX shots were created in total, and what was the composition of the overall VFX team?
Christopher Townsend: There were just over 1,200 shots in the show, which is small given the runtime. The first season had about 2,500 shots. For the second season, everyone was committed to using visual effects only where necessary and appropriate rather than relying on them for things that could be built or shot practically. We had many discussions to carefully consider the use of visual effects in the best possible way. This approach was unique for my experience at Marvel, where visual effects are often heavily relied on due to the bombastic nature of the projects. We decided to make this season more grounded by only using VFX where necessary.
One significant detail was the decision to build ceilings on the sets. Typically, in films, ceilings are omitted to accommodate lighting grids, which are then replaced with CGI ceilings in post-production. We chose to build real ceilings and light the room within that space, making much of what you see on camera real. This reality provided a strong foundation for visual effects, as there was so much real material to lean on.
Seven companies worked on the show: Framestore, Trixter, Industrial Light & Magic, Rising Sun Pictures, Fuse FX, Cantina Creative, and Luma Pictures. Transitioning from feature films to streaming, I noticed that the differences were far less than expected. We had the same creative teams and standards, which was heartwarming and a bold statement that television and streaming are now at the same level as feature films, which is remarkable and wonderful.
AF: Switching from feature films to a six-episode streaming series on Disney+, was there a different approach to organizing the visual effects for the season? You mentioned working with seven different studios—did they come in at different times? What stood out in the scripts and the timeline of delivering materials compared to your work on previous MCU films?
Christopher: I think the big difference is that it’s six very specific episodes with six air dates. You are tied to those. As we’re delivering episode one and it’s airing, we’re often still working on episode three and beyond. It meant that we were in a constant delivery mode for the last six to eight weeks, which can be stressful. We had a great production team led by Allison Paul, our visual effects producer. You have to surround yourself with great people who understand the rigors of the system to be able to deliver and not get too stressed. We had things in place, and it went pretty much like clockwork. It was quite remarkable. A lot of that is due to the talent of everyone involved, but it’s also the fact that we had a pretty singular vision for the show. That didn’t really change, allowing us to concentrate on the work at hand. Everyone knew what they needed to do and where the goalposts were. That consistency was a blessing on this show. It was wonderful to have so much creative intent at the beginning and to follow through all the way to the final episode.
AF: When you talk about the number of people involved, what does the collaboration look like with the studios and the different directors and writers over the course of a season like this?
Christopher: We were very fortunate with our executive producer, Kevin Wright, who was our creative lead. Marvel didn’t have a showrunner on ‘Loki’, but he effectively acted as one. He worked very closely with [Justin] Benson and [Aaron] Moorhead, our two lead directors for four of the episodes, who also acted as executive producers. They set the tone very carefully in terms of what we were after. We had leadership at the top, and internally, all of us got together—the heads of department, the director of photography – Isaac Bauman, who DP’d five of the episodes, the directors Benson and Moorhead, Kasra the production designer, and Dan DeLeeuw, the director for one of the other episodes. Everyone would sit down and talk, and there were no surprises. That really helped to make it a success.
AF: You mentioned the seven different VFX studios involved. Can you discuss the process of selecting them? Do you go through storyboarding and pre-viz and then choose studios based on their expertise with specific technology, or is there a different approach to the selection process?
Christopher: Over the years, I’ve developed a shorthand with various companies, each known for their strengths and weaknesses. We always try to cast the best companies for each task, and my producer Alison and I came up with a solid plan from the start. We assigned a specific number of shots to each vendor, ensuring they weren’t overloaded and could adjust their pace as needed.
We quickly identified Framestore for their effects and environment work. They handled Loki’s time-slipping effect, the spaghettification of characters and environments, and the final act where Loki blends into the Idris-type tree formation. Trickster was chosen for their strong concept work and animation, particularly for scenes outside the TVA, the gangway, and the Citadel with He Who Remains, extending their work from season one.
ILM focused on environment work, like the Chicago World’s Fair in episode three, set extensions, the White City, time doors, and other effects. Fuse Effects took on smaller tasks like time doors and deletion effects, offering quick, nimble responses to last-minute changes. Rising Sun reimagined Miss Minutes with a hand-drawn, early cel animation feel, and Cantina Creative specialized in graphics, handling temp pad visuals and storytelling through graphics. Finally, Lola did face work and simple compositing.
You try to cast the film as best you can, knowing each company’s expertise. Sometimes it’s fun to challenge them outside their wheelhouse, but often, you lean into their established skills and take advantage of what they already excel at.
AF: CGI is very common in the fantasy genre. Is there a scene where viewers might be surprised to learn the practical effects that were used?
Christopher: There’s quite a few. In episode three, when Loki and Mobius walk through Chicago during the World’s Fair, the scene was filmed on a massive set built on the backlot at Pinewood Studios in London. Often, an alternative would be to shoot against a green screen or blue screen and create the environment digitally. But that was a large set that was built.
There was one particular environment where we went to a shipyard, or shipbuilding yard, for the end of episode two. We see various characters jumping through time doors, and Loki, Mobius, and Sylvie have a fight with them in that building. It’s a very strange building because it almost looks like impractical CG, but no, it’s real—it’s a real space. So, trying to find unique spaces is always good.
Then there’s the work that Fuse did for Episode 4 with what we call the “gizmo”. The gizmo sits in a big orange room that has a holographic digital box that surrounds people, shrinks and squishes them. The entire set—the actual room itself—was all practical. In the past, we might have thought it was too hard to shoot in such an enclosed space. But we built a full set with four walls and a ceiling and were able to shoot in there. It was a relatively reflective environment, but we managed to avoid doing too much paint-out of reflections of camera crews and things.
We tried to be very careful in using the sets as best we could to keep it as grounded as possible, and using visual effects where they were obviously needed, like in the time slipping or when someone is shredded as they walk out on a gangway. It’s about finding the correct use of visual effects.
AF: Which scene or effect in season two was the most technically challenging to create?
Christopher: I can give you several examples. There are three or four things that particularly stand out. Obviously, the time slipping was really interesting, working with Tom [Hiddleston], who plays Loki, and getting him to give us multiple performances. We were trying to find a look that feels grotesque, elegant, and almost understandable, but not quite. We aimed for that elusive line between all these elements to create something unique that also helps the narrative. That was a fun and challenging task. We leaned into long exposure photography, the paintings of Francis Bacon, Cubism, and things like that to figure out how to show something from different angles at the same time. Framestore did that work, and Tom’s performance was key.
Then there was the spaghettification—the evisceration of environments, but in a timeline-like fashion, using strands. We tried to create something physical and tangible, something that viewers could almost feel they could hold on to. The strands were extruded from a CG model of a real world, retaining the color of the objects they came from, resulting in rainbow-like, multicolored strands. That was really fun, particularly in episode five at the record store, which I’m really proud of—it’s a beautiful sequence. We wanted to create something elegant and powerful at the same time.
The scene of going out to the loom along the gangway was really challenging. Initially, that environment was supposed to be totally empty, a void. But when we started looking at what Trickster had done, it felt too much like a matte painting. We decided to add more atmospherics, thinking logically about why they would be there. We concluded that the temporal loom was out of control, and this overflow of temporal energy was creating a storm-like atmosphere. This helped describe the volume of the space. We also added prismatic flares, punchy elements that splat into the characters and motivate the destruction of their suits. This also fed into a lighting decision made on set to have rainbow-colored lights across the set and actors’ faces, giving us motivation for that lighting choice, which added an interesting visual punch.
The loom itself had to be something that felt understandable in its mechanics, yet incredibly otherworldly. We wanted it to feel practical and physical but also massive and on a scale never seen before. The final sequence in episode six, where Loki climbs the stairs, was incredibly challenging. We had to figure out how far we could push that sequence. Up until that point, the show had been relatively grounded, but we decided that this moment was well-earned in Loki’s journey. We went all out on that final sequence, aiming to make it magical, theatrical, and dramatic while keeping it believable that Loki was actually going through that world as he climbed the staircase and eventually sat on his throne, becoming part of it. That scene was incredibly challenging, and Framestore spent many months discussing and working on it.
AF: The timeline effects from ‘Loki’ are having a lasting impact as we’ve already seen elements of them used in ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’. Did the visuals in the MCU influence your work on the timeline, or is it more that Marvel loved what you did and plans to incorporate those elements into future MCU films?
Christopher: I think it’s both. Honestly, it’s an ever-growing canon that we’re creating, and that’s really exciting—to see the crossover of aesthetics from one show to another while still trying to create something unique for each show. The look of ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ is obviously very different from the look we created in ‘Loki’, but there are elements that you’re using and referencing. I think that’s really interesting—how do you fit that aesthetic or that bit of what we’re creating, hoping for it to become lore? How do you use that? We’ve absolutely looked at all the other things going on in terms of visuals. For example, the Yggdrasil that we see toward the end of episode six is based on the Yggdrasil tree and title sequence from ‘Thor’. There’s definitely a lot of looking back at what we’ve created and trying to create something that exists within the whole MCU. That’s very important to the storytelling.