Warning: This article contains very minor spoilers for Loki season 2 episode 1.
It’s been a while since a Marvel property inspired as much praise as the first episode of Loki season 2.
Picking up right where season 1 left off, season 2 begins by addressing the elephant in the room, i.e. why no one remembers Loki. Instead of being stuck in a branched timeline or a sinister alternate reality created by the death of He Who Remains, we learn that Loki is simply stuck in the past, transported here by way of Time Slipping.
Meanwhile, the present-day Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) are grappling with the catastrophic number of branched timelines slipping into the red and the prospect of having to tell the TVA that everything they thought was true is actually false. Here, Loki takes a turn for the political.
Whereas the political aspects of the first season were confined to Judge Ravonna Renslayer and the Time-Keepers, season 2 immediately ups the ante with additional players on the board. Now that Renslayer missing, there’s a new judges council, and General Dox and Judge Gamble summon Mobius and B-15 to the war room to confront them over the decision to stop pruning variants.
Who is Liz Carr, the actress who plays Judge Gamble in Loki?
If you’ve seen Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens season 2, then you might’ve felt a tinge of déjà vu at the sight of Liz Carr playing Judge Gamble in Loki season 2. Not because Carr isn’t an absolute standout in every role, but because Loki marks the second time the English actress and comedian has played a judge-like character who governs space and time.
In Good Omens, Carr played Saraquel, a no-nonsense angel in Heaven whose iron-clad decisions directly impact people’s lives. In Loki, Carr plays Judge Gamble, a no-nonsense judge in the TVA who’s been handing down guilty verdicts for as long as she can remember.
Another element of familiarity with Carr’s character can be traced back to a certain time-traveling Doctor. Indeed, Loki’s Judge Gamble is a clear adaptation of Professor Gamble from the comics, who, it just so happens, is inspired by Doctor Who.
Carr’s work on television and film began in 2017 when she starred as the Death Provider in the crime movie Le Accelerator. Her most recognizable role to date is Clarissa Mullery from the British drama series Silent Witness, which she starred in from 2013 to 2020. Loki is her first MCU appearance.
Carr is an open advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, and often incorporates jokes about her disability into her stand-up comedy routines. Since the age of seven, she has lived in a wheelchair with arthrogryposis multiplex congenital, a rare disorder that typically occurs in young children, and affects the mobility of joints, and causes muscle weakness.