Sophia Di Martino has revealed that the backstory for her Marvel character Sylvie was “made up as we went along” during production on the first season of Loki.
The Disney Plus series follows Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief after he is arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), following the mind-bending events of Avengers: Endgame.
Di Martino is later introduced as a so-called ‘variant‘ of Loki – meaning a version of him from a branching alternate timeline – the likes of which the TVA have devoted their lives to eliminating.
This made her a fugitive from a very young age, forcing her to use a time travel device to hide out where the TVA would never think to look: in the final moments of doomed civilisations.
At an event hosted by the Royal Television Society, Di Martino revealed the backstory for her character wasn’t as rigorously mapped out as fans might expect, but instead crafted on the fly during filming by herself and the wider creative team.
“We didn’t do loads of background with Sylvie, did we?” Di Martino said to the panel, which also consisted of writer Michael Waldron, director Kate Herron and co-star Tom Hiddleston.
“I just started from an instinct, I guess, and a lot of it was already there in the script. I just started from the place that she’s a brawler and she’s a survivor and she’s been through hell and back. She’s had a really, really s**t life.”
That traumatic upbringing turned Sylvie into a closely guarded person, but signs of a potential romance between herself and Loki began to emerge as the series progressed.
Di Martino continued: “I just started from that place and sort of building her character from there because her backstory is just so… she’s been hiding in apocalypses for thousands of years so it’s quite difficult to delve into that.
“And you know, it’s a new character really from scratch, so I guess we just sort of made it up as we went along… and kept on discovering things throughout filming,” she added. “Rather than doing loads of preparation, just sort of improvising in the moment a little bit and finding the character that way.”
As for the apocalyptic origin story that was depicted, writer Waldron expressed his relief that it wasn’t one of the concepts used up in his episode of fast-paced animated comedy Rick and Morty.
“The big idea of hiding out in apocalypses… I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I’m glad I didn’t burn that in a Rick and Morty episode’. I’m glad we got that in the show because that felt like a cool, really fresh time travel conceit,” he said.
Check out the Royal Television Society’s complete Loki behind-the-scenes Q&A below:
The first season of Loki ended on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger that left viewers with more questions than answers, but the series has officially been renewed for a second season which will hopefully help clear things up.
In typically secretive Marvel fashion, very few details have been announced about the next batch of episodes, but Hiddleston and Di Martino are expected to reprise their roles.
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