TIME BANDIT
The day Tom Hiddleston found out the role of Loki was going to go a little further than just playing the antagonist in 2011’s Thor sounds like an end-credits sting in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.
“Kevin Feige called me into his office shortly after I was cast,” recalls Hiddleston, chatting to Total Film via Zoom in May. “He said, ‘Congratulations on Thor. This is going to be great. I can’t wait to get started. And I’d like to talk to you about The Avengers. I’m going to make a Captain America film after this, and then we’re going to put them all together and we’re going to make The Avengers. It’s going to be all of them, plus the Hulk and Black Widow. And I want you to be the villain, because in 1963, Loki was the villain for the first Avengers comic.’ I thought, ‘OK, this is a slightly longer and more epic journey than I had initially imagined...’”
‘I HAD SAID GOODBYE TO THE CHARACTER. I HAD HUNG UP THE COSTUME’
Tom Hiddleston
Hiddleston has now been playing the Asgardian trickster – one of the most consistently popular characters in the MCU – for 10 years, and is reprising the role in an ambitious six-part streaming series on Disney+. But Hiddleston’s MCU origin story was a humble one. He initially auditioned for the title character before being pivoted into the role of Thor’s devious, damaged adopted brother Loki, who glowers in the shadow of the heir apparent. Hiddleston says he was “completely thrilled and honoured and excited” by the switch-up. After an extensive audition process, he knew what the role entailed.
“I had been made aware of the story, and Kenneth Branagh’s vision, and the scope, and [its] epic nature,” he grins, looking quite un-Loki-like with swept-back spiky hair, a short, stubbly goatee, and a blue knitted jumper (the only concession to the God of Mischief being a Loki-green t-shirt peeking out from his collar). “So by then, I understood that Loki was going to be a very significant role, and a thrilling antagonist. And apart from anything else, a really complex character with a huge amount to explore. Those things made me feel really excited, because I loved his complexity and contradiction.”
Despite his fascination with the character, onwards, audiences immediately connected with Loki. Sly, tricksy, petulant, he was also innately relatable.
