Loki Season 2: Ke Huy Quan's OB Was Almost A Variant Of Another Marvel Character
"Loki" remains a popular entry among the Marvel Disney+ series, with Season 2 being a worthy follow-up. A big part of that was Ke Huy Quan joining the cast as Ouroboros, aka OB, a Time Variance Authority agent who knows a lot about the group overseeing the Sacred Timeline. However, there's a chance Quan wouldn't have joined the cast if the team behind the scenes went with a different idea of who OB should be.
Aleksi Briclot, a concept artist for numerous Marvel projects like "Avengers: Endgame," "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," and "Loki" Season 2, shared some artwork on Instagram of what OB could've looked like. In this version, OB looks more like Owen Wilson, and that's no coincidence; OB could've been a variant of Wilson's character, Mobius. Briclot explains in the caption, "Exploring Ourobouros being a variant of Mobius. That's obviously why I've played with #owenwilson likeness while altering it with this big red moustache. Mobius from another timeline."
Double the Owen Wilson wouldn't have necessarily been a bad thing, but Quan was fantastic in the part. Then again, Quan could've played the Mobius variant, which is possible in this multiverse, given there are various Lokis running around who all look different. Either way, getting an Academy Award winner for the Marvel series was a good call no matter how it's sliced.
Aleksi Briclot shared other concept drawings for OB
There's a great deal of appreciation toward the "Owen Wilson as OB" aesthetic, with Instagrammer @theandreilucas writing, "It reminded me of Bill Murray in Ghostbusters." However, it seems the team behind "Loki" Season 2 had a lot of ideas on what OB could look like before landing on what Ke Huy Quan wore in the actual show, which was partially inspired by the actor's look as Data in "The Goonies."
Aleksi Briclot uploaded a couple of other variations for a potential design. One look sees OB as a much older man with a long white beard. Briclot explains, "As he was supposed to live in a forgotten part of the TVA I did another TVA logo, looking older than the current one, mixed with an hourglass. The long beard was also an obvious nod that OB was around for a while." The final conceptual design sees OB working in what looks like the mailroom of the Time Variance Authority, which is also populated with many cats. Briclot points out, "This time more like a postman. Living in this quiet and almost forgotten office, in the basement of the TVA, surrounded by his feline pals. And no he's not rolling a cigarette but instead looking at his watch."
A lot of thought clearly went into getting the look of OB just right, with the final version basically being an eccentric guy who's also a brilliant inventor. Besides, there are enough cats in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with "Captain Marvel" and "The Marvels."