It was incredible! I'm so happy I got the opportunity to attend, and it uplifted my spirits so much. I really hope Paley makes the panel available for everyone to watch at some point because the questions and discussion were pithy, thoughtful, and engaging. Just a stellar panel. If it doesn't become publicly available, I'll try to circle back to post more detail of what was discussed.
Hiddleston was absolutely firing on all cylinders being his eloquent self going on long explorations of themes and the human condition. I think the most memorable was when he was exploring the relationship of Loki's line "Satisfaction is not in my nature" from a previous film to the events of the Loki series and whether that was relevant or not relevant to where the character arrived at in the series.
First of all, kudos to the host of the panel (also writer of a MCU timeline book) that came with receipts and Loki and Hiddleston quotes from over a decade ago that he used to ask really interesting questions that explored Loki's journey and highlighted the beautiful ways Hiddleston has thought about playing the role over years. He just did an excellent, excellent job, and is the one that brough up the "satisfaction is not in my nature" quote to prompt discussion.
And let's be honest, I think a lot of panelists, whose job is to sound engaging and fill up panel time, when asked to explore the relationship of that "not satisfied" quote to the most recent content they filmed, would just turn on their "I'm in English class" brain and run with the prompt and improvise some ideas of how the theme of not being satisfied is shown in the series. But rather than just running with and affirming the prompt, Hiddleston actually thought about it sincerely and turned it around answering in the negative, that he wasn't sure if that still applied in the series. So instead of just running with the prompt, he cared enough about the art to give it the most truthful answer he could. I saw that aspect of how he approaches discussion when I met him in person at a comic con a number of years ago as well, that interest in exploring something sincerely rather than doing the easier thing of just running with whatever is expedient, and I love that about him.
And then Wilson displayed great comedic sense and flow of the discussion by capping off Hiddleston's eloquent discussion by doing a sharp right turn into the absurd, pivoting into how "would my dog have any meaning in his life if he was satisfied and had everything he wanted and wasn't constantly eager for his next meal". That got a huge laugh from everyone.
Some other anecdotes from the event:
For the arc of the series, it was described as season 1 being about Loki learning to love himself and season 2 was about learning to accept connections and let the love of others in.
Hiddleston's wardrobe was lovely -- all black and dark grey, with bright red tread on the bottom of his shoes for which sitting at a panel with your legs crossed is the perfectly opportunity to show off that pop of color.
I was also digging Aaron Moorhead's style with a grey top half and orange pants and shoes with blue socks. Love this trend of men making bold color choices in their wardrobe.
Hiddleston was, unsurprisingly, very engaged with the whole discussion and it was fun to watch his reactions when other people spoke. The host asked the writers/directors if they'd created S2 with it in mind of it being Loki's last appearance or whether we might see more of Loki in the future. Wilson playfully said "he comes the tap dancing" and Hiddleston very deliberately turned towards the writers/directors with his chin on his fist like "I'm so curious to hear the answer, do tell".
Sylvie ended up in a McDonalds in S2 because when Di Martino got asked at the end of season 1 where she saw Sylvie going next, she told them "she's hungry, I bet she'd go for a burger". So Di Martino takes full responsibility for that particular decision, lol.
Because comedy films aren't my thing and Wilson hasn't crossed my personal radar much besides Zoolander, which is a delightful film, I found it very interesting and wasn't necessarily expecting just the thunderous amount of applause and huge reception that Wilson got from the audience. He's very popular.
During the panel, every so often a little piece of paper, like 2x2 inches, the kind you'd use to create the effect of dumping a bunch of confetti, would fall from the rafters above the stage and slowly float down until it landed on the stage itself in front of the panel. The first time was peculiar, but it continued to happen five distinct times throughout the panel and became a bit of a running joke.
Before the Q&A, they screened the finale episode, and they did not have their tech sorted out. The film didn't play at a consistent 24 fps and there were parts that lagged and slowed down the motion on screen. A minor thing really, but for an organization whose sole purpose and mission is media (Paley), in a venue (the Dolby Theater) that hosts the Oscars and should be technologically state of the art, you'd think they'd make sure they could play video at proper speed. I just thought it was a funny issue for a media organization to have.
Tagging @delyth88 since I know you were interested in hearing about it.
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