Who Plays Hunter X-05, AKA Brad Wolfe on ‘Loki’? Meet Rafael Casal

You could be forgiven for being confused. In Loki Season 2, Episode 2, we’re officially introduced to Hunter X-05, aka Brad Wolfe. The character did show up in the season premiere, but despite the familiarity Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) have with the Hunter, Season 2 is the first time he’s shown up on screen.

So who is Hunter X-05? Why does he use the name Brad Wolfe? What’s his connection to the Marvel Comics character Zaniac? And most importantly, who is Rafael Casal, the actor who plays Hunter X-05 on TV? Here’s what you need to know.

Who Is Hunter X-05 On Loki, And Was He In Season 1?

In the first episode of Loki Season 2, titled “Ouroboros,” the Time Variance Authority (TVA) is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The reason? Well, there are multiple reasons: Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the head of the TVA; Loki revealed that everyone in the TVA was a mind-wiped variant of someone off the main, sacred timeline, and not spontaneously generated from the TVA; and Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the ostensible head of the TVA, abandoned ship.

Trying to hold on to some semblance of normalcy is a small council including Judge Gamble (Liz Carr) and General Dox (Kate Dickie). Dox wants the TVA to go back to pruning timelines before things go out of control. Gamble is swayed by the words of Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaka), who explains that there are billions of people on those timelines, and they need a moment to think of a better way.

Backing up Dox is Hunter X-05. He actually showed up earlier in the episode, taunting Mobius about his love of jet skis. And later, he threatens to prune Loki if he steps out of line. Both of these characters and everyone else, seem to know X-05, so you’d be forgiven for thinking he showed up in Season 1. But nope, he didn’t. The script is written as if he was always there, but “Ouroboros” is his first appearance. It’s possible given the nature of the show there are some timeline shenanigans going on. But more likely, they cast a new actor in a new role and are just — forgive the alliteration — rolling with it.

Who Is Brad Wolfe On Loki? What’s His Connection To Hunter X-05?

With the death of He Who Remains and the timelines once again branching out of control, the Variants of the TVA now have the possibility of seeing different ways their lives may have turned out. For Hunter X-05, that means traveling to the ’70s and replacing his Sacred Timeline double Brad Wolfe. To be clear: Hunter X-05’s name is also Brad Wolfe, it was always Brad Wolfe, but he didn’t know that until the implosion of the TVA.

Over the course of this week’s episode, we discover that Brad is a burgeoning movie star in a shlocky action sci-fi series called Zaniac. We also find out that he abandoned General Dox sometime after discovering the location of Sylvie: a McDonald’s in a branched timeline version of Broxton. Instead of hanging out there, he decided to become a movie star (as mentioned). Unfortunately, instead, he gets captured by the TVA at the end of the episode in connection with Dox’s somewhat successful plan to prune nearly every branched timeline, all at once.

Who Is Zaniac In The Marvel Comics?

As usual with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there isn’t a one-to-one with the characters on the page, and the characters on the screen. However, as introduced in Thor #319, Brad Wolfe was a somewhat successful actor who portrayed serial killer Zaniac on screen. Due to your regular assortment of radiation and explosions, he was given incredible powers (super-strength, energy knives), and was mutated to look like a hideous monster. He also got possessed by a demon, which seems like a hat on a hat, but what do I know?

Due to further circumstances too complicated to explain here, Zaniac died and the demon escaped in a swarm of rats who killed Thor’s girlfriend. Teaming up with a TVA agent (see how this is all coming together?), Thor traveled back in time and, uh, killed the rats. Jane was saved, but poor old Brad Wolfe remained very dead.

I look forward to seeing all of this portrayed beat for beat on screen.

Who Is Rafael Casal, Who Plays Brad Wolfe AKA Hunter X-05 On Loki?

HE’S A SWARM OF RATS!!!

Just kidding. Unlike the beefy dumbo he plays on screen, Casale is actually an accomplished poet. He appeared on multiple seasons of Def Poetry Jam, has won multiple poetry slam contests, and co-founded the Bars Workshop at the Public Theater in New York with Daveed Diggs.

In fact, the two are best friends! Aw. The duo wrote, starred in, and produced the movie Blindspotting. You might also know Casal from his role on The Good Lord Bird as General John Cook, or Mr. Top Hat on Are You Afraid of the Dark. Coming up, he’ll play O.E. Parker in Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat, opposite Maya Hawke, Laura Linney, Steve Zahn, and many more. Brad Wolfe would be so jealous.

You can follow him on Instagram where he currently has 78.8k followers, or X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), where he hasn’t posted since August.