Mandatory Over-Under: How Long Will It Take Owen Wilson to Say a Classic ‘Wow’ on Disney+ ‘Loki’ Series?

Actors often fall into signature schticks or phrases; Samuel L. Jackson says “motherfucker,” Matthew McConaughey immortalized “alright, alright, alright,” and Owen Wilson expresses astonishment/admiration via “wow.” Albeit unintentional, Wilson’s recurring bit, and his drawn-out way of saying it, has made him closely associated with the word itself—audiences expect to hear him say it (and he’s said it in nearly everything he’s done). Stretching back to his feature film debut in 1996’s Bottlerocket, Wilson has said “wow” a total of 81 times in 27 of the 52 films he’s starred in. Now, the actor even tends to add a “wow” here and there just to see if his fans will notice. That said, many were surprised Wilson didn’t utilize his signature utterance in the premiere episode of Disney+’s Loki.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Loki follows the God of Mischief in the wake of Avengers: Endgame. However, his arc doesn’t pick up chronologically; instead, the series centers on the 2012 versions of Loki (circa The Avengers) who escaped custody after stealing the Tessearct. This “variant” Loki is arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a bureaucratic organization that monitors the proper flow of time according to the dictation of the Time Keepers. Wilson pays homage to Alex Trebek as Agent Mobius M. Mobius, a high-ranking agent who specializes in the investigations of particularly dangerous variants. Mobius needs Loki’s assistance apprehending a variant who is attacking the sacred timeline and threatening multiversal madness—which is bound to happen—a plot worthy of “wow.”

Marvel Studios has been hyping their long-awaited multiverse for quite some time and Loki looks to crack it wide open. When Marvel isn’t making boner jokes in WandaVision, they’re a studio of the people—we’re going to get a quintessential-Owen-Wilson “wow” and it’s most likely going to happen when shit hits the fan. Both Wilson and Hiddleston have said that their favorite portion of the series occurs around episodes 4 and 5 (6 episodes in total). Taking that into consideration, as well as Wilson’s proclivity for uttering “wow” in a little over 50% of his projects, the mandatory over-under for how many episodes it’ll take for Mobius to be astonished is 3.5. Until then, scroll for more of Wilson’s classic catchphrase.