#Loki Scores the Biggest Original Debut on Disney+

Not content with becoming Disney+’s biggest Marvel TV show, Disney CEO Bob Chapek has confirmed that the God Of Mischief’s spin-off series has out-performed every other original release to arrive on the platform since it launched just over a year ago. That means, the opening episode of Loki was watched by more people in its opening week than the stage film Hamilton, the premier of Pixar’s Soul and even the huge Star Wars series The Mandalorian, and the week isn’t even up yet. Considering how all previous Marvel series have continued to grow in popularity during their run, what kind of figures Loki‘s final episode will receive is anyone’s guess.

When WandaVision arrived on Disney+, it set a bar for the future released of Marvel’s other announced series’. While impressive by any standard, The Falcon And The Winter Soldier soon took the crown from Scarlet Witch and set down a gauntlet for the last of the current run of live action spin-off series’. It was instantly clear on its debut last Wednesday, that Loki was easily going to become the new darling of the Marvel trilogy of shows, but no one really foresaw exactly how far its wings would spread.
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While Marvel is undoubtedly Disney’s biggest concern, there are plenty of other big guns in its arsenal, and it was probably never quite planned that Loki would manage to outshine every single one of them, even more impressive considering the risky move of putting new episodes of the series out on a Wednesday rather than the regular Friday slot. However, it would appear that, as the man himself said, Wednesdays are the new Friday, and the gamble more than paid off.

The return of Tom Hiddleston as Loki was also different to its predecessors by having a longer gap before its release. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier began almost as soon as WandaVision ended, meaning that many fans of one were carried straight into the next. Loki had a six month wait following the climax of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and some worried that the gap may kill off the momentum Marvel were building. Instead, the delay appeared only to heighten the demand for Loki‘s opening episode, and the debut’s position as Disney+’s overall top performer speaks volumes for the mighty machine that Marvel Studios have become, with nothing put out in the last decade being anything other than a runaway success.

As Marvel are now gearing up to kick off Phase Four of the MCU for real with Black Widow finally arriving in cinemas in less than a month, all eyes are going to be on that movie to see how the Marvel Cinematic Universe performs on the big screen following the reopening of theaters around the world. With a handful of movies passing the $100 million mark at the domestic box office, including Disney’s own Cruella, the expectation on Black Widow to see off that milestone in a record time is now even higher knowing that its release will pretty much coincide with finale of Loki. Although many believed that Marvel’s bubble could burst after the phenomenal conclusion of the Infinity Saga, it looks like nothing could be further from the truth. Loki airs new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+, while Black Widow arrives in cinemas worldwide on July 9th.

Topics: Loki, Disney Plus, Streaming