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On his first day of filming “Loki” Season 2 at Pinewood Studios, Ke Huy Quan headed toward the set of the Time Variance Authority’s Repairs and Advancement desk.
Dressed in his TVA jumpsuit, Quan looked up and saw that his character Ouroboros’ domain was built at the Roger Moore stage. And he noticed something that linked O.B., the enthusiastic TVA repair guy he portrays on “Loki,” which recently wrapped its second season on Disney+, and Data, the young gadgeteer he played in “The Goonies” (1985).
“Data loves James Bond,” says Quan, alluding to Moore’s tenure as the iconic secret agent from 1973 to 1985. “007 really inspires him to love gadgets and engineering and all of that stuff. It was such a wonderful, cosmic connection.”
Quan, of course, had already made an association between this childhood role and his Marvel Cinematic Universe character who, as audiences learned in the Season 2 premiere, has been working alone, deep in the basement of the TVA, for more than 400 years.
This is a guy that “never sleeps, works 24/7, and loves his job so much he still approaches it [with] so much energy,” says Quan. “I instantly fell in love with O.B.”
As he sat down to pick the brains of “Loki” Season 2 head writer Eric Martin and executive producer Kevin R. Wright to learn everything he could about Ouroboros, Quan realized this was a character he already knew.
“This is a variant of Data,” says Quan. “All these years, fans have come up to me and asked … ‘What do you imagine [Data] doing as an adult?’ This was my answer to those fans.”
Much like O.B., Quan is full of enthusiasm as he shares his thoughts and anecdotes of working on the series and joining the MCU. That he is happy to be able to (finally) talk about “Loki” is a steady refrain during a recent afternoon in El Segundo that also included a photo and video shoot. He’s even wearing a pin of O.B. on his black jacket.
He was a young favorite -- Short Round in ‘Temple of Doom,’ Data in ‘The Goonies’ -- then he left acting, or rather, acting left him. Now he’s back in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’
For Quan, joining the MCU was at the top of his wish list when he decided to return to acting. He’s been a fan of the comic book superhero franchise since 2008’s “Iron Man,” and he thought the first season of “Loki” was one of the best shows he’d ever seen. He is also a longtime admirer of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, who he first met when they were both working on “X-Men” (2000), on which Quan was an assistant action choreographer and Feige an associate producer.
Quan’s triumphant second act was the Cinderella story of the 2022-2023 awards season. It was shortly after deciding to take another chance at his dream career in front of the camera that Quan landed the role of Waymond Wang in 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the acclaimed indie darling that went on to sweep the top honors at the Academy Awards. Quan’s route to winning his supporting actor Oscar for his performance included wins at the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards in addition to accolades from numerous media and critics groups.
And it was “Everything Everywhere All at Once” that put Quan on Feige’s radar. Sarah Finn, the casting director on “Loki” who also worked on “Everything Everywhere,” recommended Quan for the role of O.B. after seeing the film at a cast and crew screening.
A heads up from his agent to expect a call from Feige had Quan nervous and excited — could this be the call about joining the MCU? He was driving when the phone rang. It was Feige, who started by telling Quan about how much he enjoyed “Everything Everywhere.”
“Finally he says, ‘Ke, I would love for you to join our MCU family,’” says Quan. “I started getting emotional. My eyes started welling up with tears and I couldn’t see [so] I had to pull over and put the car in park. And I said ‘Kevin, please ask me again, what did you just say?’”
Ke Huy Quan as O.B. in “Loki.”
(Gareth Gatrell / Marvel Studios)
As is the established precedent of high-profile franchise projects, Quan’s involvement and role was kept under close wraps for quite awhile. It was four months into shooting in London when Feige visited the “Loki” set and invited Quan to join returning cast members at the 2022 D23 Expo to make it official. (It was at that same fan event that Quan was reunited with Harrison Ford and snapped that viral photo.)
Quan is all smiles as he mentions, again, that talking about “Loki” is incredible.
“I’ve waited a long time, patiently, to talk about this,” he says. “This is a show that I’m very proud of and to share my feelings on the show gives me a lot of joy.”
Quan had to wait longer than usual to speak about his experiences on “Loki” because the series premiered during the SAG-AFTRA strike, which saw actors join Writers Guild of America members in a historic dual work-stoppage as both unions negotiated new contracts with Hollywood entertainment companies.
The actor explains why the MCU attracts an all-star roster of performers and looks back at ‘sad’ and ‘confusing’ times on ‘Game of Thrones.’
“The strike was really important,” says Quan, who remembers the uncertainties of being without work and losing his health insurance amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. “It was important for our union to get a fair deal for all of our members. I’m very thankful to the negotiating committee; they did an outstanding job.”
But one thing the strike enabled Quan to do was look back and process his whirlwind year since the premiere of “Everything Everywhere.”
“A lot of stuff was a blur,” says Quan. “Luckily, I took a lot of pictures.”
For Quan, everything has felt new this time around. Although his first go at acting was launched when he was a child with roles in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) and “The Goonies,” the opportunities back then were much more limited. So when he decided to pursue acting again, the thought of getting any award was inconceivable.
But then “Everything Everywhere” was released and he saw how audiences responded to the film. And now, he has an Oscar and filmmakers reaching out about working with him.
Ke Huy Quan says he didn’t want his time on “Loki” to end.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s an incredible feeling to be in a position where people want to work with you rather than being in a room, desperately trying to persuade them to give you a chance, persuade them to believe in you,” says Quan. “Every time I think back about everything that’s happened so far, it puts a big smile on my face.”
Still, Quan says it was a bit intimidating to join “Loki” because most of the cast, as well as the crew, were returning from Season 1. But Tom Hiddleston welcomed him with a big hug and he quickly was able to feel like a member of the “Loki” family.
“I had the most amazing time working with everybody,” says Quan, who adds that the experience didn’t feel like work. “In fact, I had such a wonderful time that I didn’t want the shoot to end.”
Although the dream job has ended for now, Quan is hopeful about the future. While Quan has no planned additional MCU appearances in the works, he says Feige did tease that the opportunity was not definitively a one-off. And with the strike finally over, he is also looking forward to getting back to work.
One thing Quan has taken away from his time on “Loki” is the excitement and love Hiddleston approached the character with every day even after playing him for more than a decade.
“It was really inspiring,” says Quan. “I want to walk on every set with the sense of gratitude, with the sense of excitement that I had when I did ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’”
