EXCLUSIVE: Rafael Casal (Blindspotting) is set for a major role in the upcoming second season of Disney+’s Marvel series Loki, sources tell Deadline.
A rep for Marvel declined comment but word of Casal’s casting started trickling out when a photo from the set of Season 2 leaked online. It features Casal walking alongside Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, who are back, reprising their roles as anti-hero Loki and Mobius, respectively. Details about Casal’s character are being kept under wraps; online speculation includes a hypothesis that he could be playing Zaniac.
Following strong reviews and record viewing numbers for the original installment, Loki became the first Marvel series for Disney+ to get a second season.
Loki is set in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-adjacent world, in which the God of Mischief is a fish-out-of-water when he lands in trouble with the bureaucratic TVA (Time Variance Authority) after absconding with the Tesseract.
As Deadline reported in February, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are co-directing a majority of the episodes in the new season. Hiddleston and Michael Waldron, who wrote and served as showrunner in Season 1, executive produce. Eric Martin is penning all six episodes.
Casal, along with Daveed Diggs, co-wrote, produced and starred in the 2018 movie Blindspotting. The two co-created and executive produce Starz’s Blindspotting series spinoff, which debuted earlier this year, with Casal as showrunner and reprising his role from the movie. The series, which has been renewed for a second season, earned an Indie Spirit Award and Gotham Award nominations for Best New/Breakthrough series. Casal’s acting credits also include Good Lord Bird, Bad Education and Are You Afraid of the Dark?
