Danny Jannson

* Teenager
* Jakob

"*I've been thinking... about the future and how your grandfather runs the Loop. I told you, I'm not going to crush rocks for the rest of my life.*"
—Danny to Jakob, as to why he won't give him back his body
**Danny Jannson** is a character on the Prime Video series *Tales from the Loop*. He is portrayed by Tyler Barnhardt and also by Daniel Zolghadri in the body of his friend Jakob and by Shaun McComb in the body of Jakob as an adult. He lived with his father, Ed, mother, Kate, and sister, Beth, in Mercer, Ohio.

He had a pet tarantula, which he kept in an aquarium in his room. He dreamed of working at the Mercer Center for Experimental Physics, a.k.a. "the Loop," but his grades at school were not suited for it. His mother suggested that he work at the local quarry in Mercer, Ohio, an idea he hated. While his best friend, Jakob, was a talented sketch artist, he barely knew how to draw at all.

## History

### Body swap

One day, he and Jakob discovered a strange spherical object in the woods. To their shock, they discovered that after Jakob entered it, they had switched bodies. Danny's consciousness was now in the body of Jakob, while Jakob's was inside Danny's. Though both of them were rather freaked out at first, particularly Jakob, they decided to each to spend a day living each other's life.

Danny soon discovered that he liked Jakob's life, as Jakob's grandfather was Russ Willard, the founder of the Loop. He realized that if he remained in Jakob's body, then he could he could have what he wanted. He told Jakob as much and Jakob became angry, wanting his own body back. Danny, however, refused, leading Jakob to make a reckless move, returning once again to the strange object alone in an attempt to get his own body back. Instead, the body of Danny Janson ended up in a comatose state and Jakob's consciousness ended up inside a robot. Danny then continued to live inside Jakob's body, taking over his life and revealing his secret to no one except his deaf sister Beth, though he appeared to mourn the loss of his friend.

### Intruder

Afterwards, he continued to visit Kate late at night in Jakob's body, while his true body continued to lay comatose at the hospital. As nobody but the two of them knew the secret, he was spotted by his father, Ed, though Ed, not getting a close look, believed him to be an intruder. Ed, already rattled by the apparent loss of his son, purchased a large remote-control robot known as the Scrapper to deter intruders. This made it ever more difficult for Danny to continue visiting, though he vowed to keep doing so. Meanwhile, Ed continued to visit Danny's body at the hospital, telling him that he couldn't fix him and that he was sorry that he had let him down. He then sold the Scrapper back to the junkyard, as it was only creating more problems for his family.

### Independence

He ended up taking a job as mechanical engineer at the Loop, doing panel repair. With the money that he made, he moved out of the Willard family home, not wanting to spend time with people who weren't actually his family. He moved into a flat above a barbershop owned by a man named Lenny, where he lived by himself. He did not visit the Willards and Loretta and George Willard believed it to be just a phase that he was having, that he was asserting his independence. Jakob's little brother, Cole, however, began to miss him, still believing him to be his big brother. He wanted him to come back, but when he spoke with him on the phone, he was distant and wouldn't agree to a time to visit.

One day, Cole took matters into his own hands and decided to visit him. Danny reluctantly let him into the flat. There, he finally admitted the truth - that he was not Cole's brother. Cole was at first confused and disbelieving, so Danny showed him a sketch drawn by his real brother of the robot that he had become trapped in. He told Cole that he never meant for this to happen and he felt really bad about it. He told Cole that he hoped that Jakob wasn't mad at him.

### The truth

Not long after this, Danny revealed the truth to both the Willards and to his own family. He showed them the remains of the Jakob robot, which had been attacked and largely destroyed by another robot in the woods not long after he revealed the truth to Cole. The Willards were left bereft, while he went back home to live with his real family.

Over 20 years later, he was married and had a child, a young girl named Nora. He paid a visit to Cole, who due to another of the strange effects caused by the Loop was still a boy of about 9-10 years old, having vanished from the world during the time that Danny grew up. He introduced him to Nora, as he was biologically Nora's uncle, even if the situation was complicated. During their conversation, he asked Cole if he had found his brother. Cole nodded and told him that he wasn't mad at him. He watched and smiled as Cole and Nora played soccer together.

## Behind the scenes

His name is similar to that of Ragnar Jönnson, an individual mentioned in passing in the original *Tales from the Loop* book.

## Appearances

*The appearances listed below past the episode "Transpose" reflect appearances of the character Jakob as credited on the series, as portrayed by the actor Daniel Zolghadri. However, this character is actually Danny inside Jakob's body.*

## References

1. ↑ IMDb - *Tales from the Loop* cast
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Transpose" Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; name "Transpose" defined multiple times with different content
3. ↑ "Control"
4. ↑ "Home"