In the spring of 2009, the MCU was still in its infancy. The sequel to Hombre de Hierro was in the midst of filming, and while Marvel Studios had already announced that four new films would expand its emerging franchise—including the exciting title of The Avengers: The Avengers—, the truth is that no one could yet say how far the plans of Kevin Feige, president of the House of Ideas, would go to build an interconnected cinematographic universe.
At that time, the British Tom Hiddleston, a 28-year-old actor who graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and lacked fame in the United States, had been selected as part of the film’s cast. thorafter three months of auditions in which he believed he only aspired to “an interesting role in an interesting movie,” without much commitment to the future.
What’s interesting is that Tom Hiddleston never actually auditioned for Loki. The native of London, England, arrived in Los Angeles with his eyes fixed on Thor, the God of Thunder, like many other actors who were looking to make their way in Hollywood and who met the requirements of measuring more than 1.8 meters and wearing a blond hair. He was even among the finalists for the title role, alongside Alexander Skarsgård, Charlie Hunnam and brothers Chris and Liam Hemsworth.
However, Mjolnir finally escaped from his hands, since director Kenneth Branagh – who had already worked with the London actor on the television series Wallander and in a staging of the play Ivanov— felt that Hiddleston’s intellectual gravitas made him much more suitable for the role he ended up assuming: that of the God of Lies.
“[Para Loki] “We needed someone who was complex and could convey intelligence,” Branagh explained to Collider in 2011, the year in which thor came to theaters. “There was a constant conversation between all of us [el equipo detrás de la película] about whether it was good to keep a question mark over the character at all times. It is bad? Do you have a plan? Do you love his brother? Do you hate your brother? Do you hate your father? How does he really react to the secrets and lies that arise throughout the story? So we needed someone who was able to put on all those masks and do it perfectly.”
Revered by the masses
In May 2010, shortly after the filming of thor concluded, Tom Hiddleston met with Joss Whedon, director chosen a month earlier to take the reins of The Avengers and that, at that moment, he longed to know everything about Loki in the words of the actor responsible for playing him. That only confirmed what Hiddleston already suspected: his character was going to be the main antagonist in the big crossover of the most powerful superheroes in the world.
The Avengers, a film released in 2012 and which became the first MCU film to exceed $1 billion at the global box office, highlights Loki’s megalomania and absolute willingness to shed blood. Hard to forget the coldness with which he stabs Agent Coulson in the back and the brutality with which he removes a scientist’s eye. But despite his shocking villainous actions, the God of Lies managed to become a character very loved and accepted by the public.
“I think in the mind of every villain there is a misunderstood hero, and that was the angle that Kenneth Branagh and I always wanted to take with Loki,” Hiddleston told Vulture in 2011. “He is very intelligent; a shapeshifter with a chess master type of strategy who can see ten steps ahead of everyone else. We wanted to relate his villainous qualities to the kind of psychological complexity we discovered in comics and the Norse sagas. “Thor is the older brother and Loki is jealous of the favor that Odin has granted him, and I think Loki is very confused and conflicted about what his place is in the family.”
The year after the release of The Avengers, Hiddleston had a very striking surprise appearance during the Marvel Studios panel at the San Diego Comic-Con 2013, fully characterized and in character. It was Loki himself “interrupting” Kevin Feige in the middle of the presentation of the sequel Thor, a dark world and demanding loyalty from all the joyful attendees in Hall H who in unison exclaimed his name over and over again. “It seems like I have an army,” he declared satisfied before leaving the stage.
Months later, Hiddleston acknowledged in an exclusive interview with Cine PREMIERE that he was amazed by the warm reception of the more than 6,000 people who witnessed in person that mischievous participation of his.
“I assumed that most would boo me because I am the villain and only some would be happy to see the bad guy. But I hit a wall of sound. “It was like a wave,” she recalled. “I had written a little speech with the plan to say my name at the end, but when I came out everyone was already shouting it and I couldn’t believe it.”
A glorious purpose
From the veteran Anthony Hopkins, interpreter of Odin, Tom Hiddleston heard the hypothesis that, although in real life people long to be surrounded by love and security, darkness, chaos and evil are extremely fascinating when they come from fiction. To that let’s add the charisma with which Hiddleston appropriated his character and the nuances that he imbued in him to explain how he has stolen so many hearts from the very beginning.
The image of Loki has been almost as high a priority as that of Heath Ledger’s Joker every time social media refers to movie villains that the public loves more than the heroes. Likewise, when analyzing the long history of very successful casting by Marvel Studios, there is usually a consensus that Hiddleston occupies a privileged position.
Furthermore, the actor’s extensive career in the MCU says more than a thousand words regarding how aware the House of Ideas is of the mark that his version of Loki has left on popular culture. For twelve years, the company has released different titles involving the God of Lies, which makes it even longer than Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.
After Thor: Ragnarok and the two subsequent installments of the saga avengersthe hopeless infinity war and the epic culmination Endgame, Thor’s deceitful brother received his own television show. After its premiere in 2021, the series Loki It had the merit not only of becoming Marvel’s most watched through Disney Plus, but also of giving a particularly deep redemption arc to the protagonist, who, away from the Avengers and Asgard, now had to find his place in the vast multiverse. .
“What I love about the series is that Loki is stripped of everything that is familiar to him,” Hiddleston said in that year to Collider. “He is stripped of his power and status. So if you take away all those things that Loki has identified with over the course of six movies, what’s left of him? Who is he, inside or outside of all those things? Those questions became, for all of us, something really fascinating. What makes Loki Loki?”
The God of Stories
The second season of Loki, released in October 2023, at least put an end to a stage of what is now called the God of Stories. It can be argued that we are perhaps facing the most powerful entity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. An omnipresent figure who sacrifices himself to hold together the very fabric of reality—and its infinite alternating lines—in the face of an imminent multiversal war.
It is not clear if in the near future, the MCU will bring him back or he will be more of an invisible presence in the upcoming installments of the Multiverse Saga. For now, Tom Hiddleston already said that after twelve episodes, the series “closed the circle” to which he dedicated fourteen years of his life, from the first time he auditioned for Marvel Studios in search of the glorious purpose of he.
“I feel very satisfied with the end of the second season, because it seems to contain echoes and resonances of the entire journey,” the actor commented to CinemaBlend. “The denouement just felt like poetic redemption, like the end of a piece of music, but I don’t know if it’s… I mean, I’ve made the mistake of saying goodbye before. Great team at Marvel. It has been emotional. We exchange notes and [ellos] They say, ‘Look, we love you. You will always be part of the family. Come see us whenever you want.’ And then the phone rings a year later. So I keep an open heart and mind.”
We are left with the image of him, smiling, sitting at the top of everything that has been, is and will be for the House of Ideas from now on.
Antonio G. Spindola I have very bad memory. Out of solidarity with my memories, I choose to get lost too. Preferably, in a movie theater.