The biggest gamble that the MCU took withAvengers: Infinity Warwas not stuffing so many heroes into one movie, but making the main villain the central character of the story. Josh Brolin as Thanos had the formidable task of presenting a threat to the entire MCU roster of heroes. This Brolin’s Thanos did through startingInfinity Warby murdering Loki with a brutal neck snap while Thor looked on helplessly. In an interview with Empire, Loki actor Tom Hiddleston revealed that Brolin was actually quite apologetic to him about the whole thing off camera.
“It was the very first scene the [directors] Russos, Joe and Anthony, had [come up with]. They told me about it in person when I went in to meet [Marvel Studios president] Kevin [Feige] and he was walking me through the loose sketch of the story for Thor: Ragnarok. This was May 2016. So I knew, before I started Ragnarok, the endgame… no pun intended. Then it came time, three days in 2017 in the spring - I went out to Atlanta, and there was such a generous atmosphere from people on set. Some I’d known since the early days. I remember meeting [Josh Brolin], actually, when I landed, before we started filming. He just enveloped me in a big hug and said, ‘I’m sorry, man.’ It was a big day, and a big moment.”
The popularity of Hiddleston’sLokihas been one of the biggest surprises of the MCU. In the comics, Loki is an out-and-out villain. But audiences fell so deeply in love with Hiddleston’s take on the character that Loki evolved from a villain to an anti-hero, to a full-fledged hero who died trying to stopThanos. According to Hiddleston, fans can relate to Loki’s motivations even when he is doing bad things.
“The arc of Loki in Thor is very poignant and full of pathos. He begins that film as Thor’s brother, and Thor is heir to the throne. I think he genuinely loves his brother, but possibly has some deep jealousy or unspoken resentment about the favour that his elder brother has seen from his mother and father. Loki is awakening to his origins and birth, and that’s been withheld from him… (Loki’s) progression to antagonist has a lot of vulnerability and pain inside it, so that even by the end of Thor, when Loki is the villain, the audience could see that it had come from a very poignant well of heartbreak and loneliness and confusion.”
Such has been the success of Hiddleston’s character that despite Loki dying in the main MCU timeline, he is getting his own show on Disney+, titledLoki, which will follow the adventures of a past version of the God of Mischief as he tries to jump between timestreams with the help of an infinity gem.
LokistarsTom Hiddleston, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, and Richard E. Grant. The series arrives Friday, June 11, on Disney+. This news originated atDigital Spy.
