Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for Loki season 2 episode 2.
Loki season 2 is full of familiar faces, but TVA employee Hunter X-5 is among a number of new ones that have brought the series to new heights.
In the season 2 premiere, we meet Hunter X-5 as the aloof, somewhat arrogant TVA agent working for General Dox. By the end of the opener, Dox orders him to hunt down Sylvie, but when the second chapter rolls around, we find Hunter X-5 living a completely separate life away from the TVA.
Episode 2 begins with Mobius and Loki arriving in London in 1977 in search of Sylie. At first, it’s not entirely clear whether the show jumped forward in time or is occurring directly following the events of episode 1, but we soon find out it’s the former. Mobius and Loki stumble upon Hunter X-5, and learn that he has abandoned his mission to find Sylie to live life as the variant version of himself instead.
In this timeline, X-5 is known as Brad Wolfe, a famous actor starring in the Zaniac film franchise. Loki and Mobius confront him, at which point X-5/Brad Wolfe goes on the run, but to no avail. The dynamic duo drag him back to the TVA, where they proceed to interrogate him into revealing Sylvie’s location.
Arguably the best part of episode 2 was the back-and-forth banter between Hunter X-5/Brad Wolfe, Loki, and Mobius. These sequences steal the episode, to such an extent that it’s impossible not to wonder who the actor stealing the spotlight from Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson is. Episode 1 was Hiddleston’s time to shine as the God of Mischief, but episode 2 – that’s all Brad.
Who is the actor that plays Hunter X-5/Brad Wolfe in Loki season 2?
Given his long hair and completely unrecognizable demeanor in Loki, you’d be forgiven for not remembering Rafael Casal at first sight. He’s arguably best known for writing and starring in the 2018 movie Blindspotting alongside real-life friend and co-star Daveed Diggs.
Casal and Diggs’s on-screen characters in Blindspotting may differ from their real-life ones, but the film remains a clear homage to their life-long friendship, as well as a love letter to their hometown of Oakland, California. The movie’s success paved the way for Casal and Diggs to reprise their respective roles in the Starz series of the same name, set six months after the events of the feature. For the series, Casal served as executive producer, showrunner, co-writer, and director.
In addition to the aforementioned projects, Casal and Diggs both appeared in the Showtime miniseries The Good Lord Bird alongside fellow Marvel actor Ethan Hawke. Casal also appeared in the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Bad Education alongside Hugh Jackman, another fellow Marvel alum.
Casal and Diggs have also embarked on a number of joint business ventures, including co-founding the BARS workshop at the Public Theater in New York City. The workshop is designed to be a “space for artists to investigate and develop their craft at the intersection of contemporary verse and theatre.”
Like Diggs, Casal is an accomplished rapper as well as an actor. He’s dropped a number of EPs and singles, including the soundtrack for Blindspotting, of which Diggs is also featured. They also jointly released an EP titled Collin in 2018. Casal’s latest single “Quicksand” was released in 2021.
Casal’s career in creativity can be traced back to the three seasons he starred in HBO’s Def Poetry Jam (2004 to 2007), at which time he was only 18 years old.