McDonald’s Girl Sylvie Taps Into Fascinating McDonald’s History
She is an angel in a polyester uniform.
Unfortunately, the most interesting thing about Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) in Loki season 2 was that she was a McDonald’s crew member. That should have been the starting point for the Goddess of Mischief, not the only point (aside from showing up to be the woman behind Tom Hiddleston’s Loki variant for a few pep talks).
When Marvel Studios announced that a 1982 McDonald’s would be appearing in Loki season 2 and that Di Martino herself was the inspiration behind the decision, I was excited. Executive producer Kevin Wright explained in an interview with Fast Company that on the last day of Loki season 1 filming, he asked Di Martino about what her character would do after completing her “decades-long, maybe centuries-long revenge mission.”
Di Martino thought about it momentarily and said, “She’d probably be pretty hungry.”
Long after this conversation, Wright and his team were developing season 2 and having trouble picking up a new Sylvie storyline after she killed He Who Remains, so they decided to return to the idea. “When we stayed in the view of character, this woman who went on the run as a child, had been running through time, a fugitive of time, living in apocalypses, never being able to relax or slow down, the novelty of walking into a 1980s McDonald’s looked appealing,” said Wright. “You play a Little League game and go to McDonald’s. You go to a kid’s birthday party at McDonald’s. Someone like Sylvie would never have experienced that and would be really taken by that.”
So, a 1982 McDonald’s was specifically written into the script, a decision that has divided the Internet. On one hand, Wright and his team apparently made the decision so that Sylvie could find an ordinary life where she’s equal to everyone else, a type of willful downgrade in powers often reserved for the women of Marvel. (After all, despite his love of Whoppers, Tony Stark never went to work at a Burger King to get away from the stress battle.) On the other hand, the move seems to have made her more relatable to a number of fans who have been showing off their McDonald’s Sylvie looks on social media.
While numerous articles have labeled the decision as mere product placement (and admittedly, it is product placement), it’s also something more. It ties into many interesting McDonald’s history, both in general and thanks to Loki’s time-traveling antics.
McDonald’s almost opened its first drive-thru in Oklahoma
Sylvie lands in Broxton, Oklahoma, at the beginning of season 2. The city should be familiar to fans of Marvel Comics, as it’s where the gods ended up building New Asgard in an influential run of Thor comics.
In the real world, Broxton is a small, incorporated community about 80 miles from Oklahoma City, a city with a unique McDonald’s tie. In 1974, a McDonald’s regional manager noticed how well drive-thrus were doing in the Western U.S. and wanted to open one in Oklahoma City. Eventually, he got the OK to design the company’s first drive-thru, a thoughtful garden-themed four-column portico. But when McDonald’s decided to remodel its classic red-and-white tiled store later that year, the Oklahoma City drive-thru project was scrapped.
The McDonald’s drive-thru military complex (perfect for Marvel, right?)
Step through a time door to 2022, and McDonald’s reports that drive-thru accounts for 70 percent of its U.S. business. Although drive-thru dining began in car-centric California as early as the late-1940s, it wasn’t until the 1970s that McDonald’s and most fast-food chains installed drive-thru windows. Per the National Museum of American History drive-thru exhibit, this shift in dining habits occurred because of an increase in single-parent households, after-school activities, and commute times.
With McDonald’s plans for an Oklahoma City drive-thru failing, the company opened its first drive-thru in 1975. Located near an army base in Sierra Vista, Arizona, the location had a unique problem: its profits were decreasing because soldiers couldn’t leave their cars to pick up food while wearing fatigues. To solve the problem, franchisee David Rich installed a sliding window in the wall to facilitate drive-thru orders—and suddenly, McDonald’s first drive-thru was born.
It’s no secret that the military is also part of the Marvel machine.
1 in 8 Americans Has Worked for McDonald’s
There are even statistics to prove how relatable Sylvie’s experience is. I was a ‘Bux barista, never a McDonald’s crew member, but McDonald’s reports that 1 in 8 Americans has been. Former McDonald’s crew members include Academy Award-winning actors Sharon Stone and Rachel McAdams, as well as NASA astronaut and electrical engineer Katya Echazarreta.
In 2022, Echazarreta teamed up with the McDonald’s HACER National Scholarship. Founded in 1985, Yahoo! Finance reports, “HACER has become one of the largest programs committed to providing college scholarships and resources for Hispanics, awarding more than $33 million in scholarships to more than 17,000 students nationwide.”
Echazarreta has said, “As a Latina in STEM, I initially didn’t have many people to turn to for advice, especially when it came to education. I look forward to meeting students across the country and inviting them to push beyond what they believe are their own limits. After all, I’ve learned the sky is far from the limit.”
Vera Wang credits McDonald’s for her amazing skin
It’s not just relatable to people who work there, either. Nowadays, celebrities (basically modern-day gods, right?) are open about their favorite meals from the casual dining chain. Selena Gomez loves Happy Meals, Chrissy Teigen asks her husband, John Legend, to order her the Sausage McMuffin, and BTS famously loves McNuggets and fries. Some celebrities love Mc
But only one celebrity attributes her great skin and youthful appearance to eating at the restaurant. Fashion icon Vera Wang recently told Page Six at New York City’s DKMS Gala: “I do eat McDonald’s, absolutely. I order it every day, like two weeks on it, and then I’ll change.”
McDonald’s’ June Martino has a place in women’s NYSE history
What’s more Sylvie than badass women? McDonald’s den mother June Martino joined the company in 1948 as McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc’s bookkeeper, ultimately rising through the ranks to become corporate secretary, treasurer, director, and part-owner of McDonald’s Corporation. When the corporation was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1966, Martino, along with Kroc’s wife, became the first woman to be a guest in the all-male NYSE directors’ dining room since Queen Elizabeth.
McDonald’s once flipped the Golden Arches for International Women’s Day
On the other hand, in 2018, McDonald’s flipped its famous logo upside down “in celebration of women everywhere.” The move didn’t go over too well with the public, who labeled it “McFeminism.”
The Golden Arches might be the most recognized symbol in the world, even more than a cross. A 1985 study asked three and four-year-olds to identify logos. The McDonald’s logo was the most recognized, with 17 out of 20 preschoolers able to identify the Golden Arches as McDonald’s. In the immortal words of John Lennon, McDonald’s is bigger than Jesus.
McDonald’s applied for a California liquor license in 1983
Mischief gods love to kick back a pint or two, or a million, making the ’80s the perfect time for Sylvie to join in. According to UPI, McDonald’s applied for a license to sell beer and wine in one of its California restaurants in 1983. The owner of a McDonald’s in Mammoth’s Sierra resort community’s application was the company’s first (and only?) attempt to sell booze at one of its locations in the U.S.
“Basically, the application was made in Mammoth because of the unique demographics in the area,” McDonald’s spokesperson Steven Leroy told UPN. “It’s an adult recreation location and a large number of tourists are in the area.”
Outside of the U.S., there are several countries where alcohol is commonly served at McDonald’s. The fast food chain has been serving beer at locations in France and Germany since the beginning. In 2016, it was announced that beer would be served at South Korean locations so they could compete with other casual dining and gourmet burger restaurants. From personal experience, I can confirm that the Russian McDonald’s also serves alcohol (although they are now called Vkusno & Tochka).
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the first film McDonald’s promoted
Loki is just the latest in a long line of pop culture promotions/tie-ins from McDonald’s. Originally made up of fries, cookies, a soft drink, and a toy, Happy Meals premiered in 1977 in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Denver. After an unusually long test period, the item went national in 1979. That same year, McDonald’s partnered with Star Trek: The Motion Picture to offer themed Happy Meals and toys from the movie. It was the first time the fast food chain helped promote a TV show, video game, or movie, and they haven’t gone back since. In fact, as part of the Loki season 2 promotion, the fast food chain celebrated its long history of branded partnerships.
King Charles III is a McDonald’s franchisee
It’s 2023, which means even British royals are getting in on the American dream. When Queen Elizabeth II died, her vast real estate portfolio (known as the Crown Estate and worth $17.7 billion) was passed on to King Charles III. Among these monarch-owned properties are seven McDonald’s restaurants. Owned by Britain’s current reigning monarch but managed by a board, the Crown Estate properties generate profit for the UK Treasury.
Loki is closely connected to the UK. Not only are both Tom Hiddleston and Di Martino from the British Isles, but the SHARP Society (basically, a low-rent TVA for magic) is located in the Norse Wing of the British Museum in London. The SHARP Society was introduced in Mackenzi Lee’s Loki: Where Mischief Lies.
There is a McDonald’s for bees
One-third of the world’s food supply is made possible by bees. Yet, bee populations worldwide are decreasing at an alarming rate, which will result in further degradation of our environment. In Sweden, McDonald’s has devised a creative solution for helping the world’s bee population: A one-stop shop for all of Sweden’s bees’ needs, called the McHive, the world’s tiniest Mcdonald’s.
(featured image: Disney+)
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
