Loki is a schemer, a liar, a wicked conniver and a chaotic ruler. Now he can add “crime master” to his list.
Preparing for the upcoming Disney+ series, star Tom Hiddleston and MCU chief Kevin Feige both describe Loki’s coming arc as less a time-travel adventure and more an exciting crime escapade.
Loki’s return
After seemingly being killed by Thanos in the opening scene of Avengers Infinity War, Loki was brought back thanks to a time-travel adventure.
In Endgame, the Avengers went back to the first Avengers film’s events to get the Tesseract. Instead, the Loki of the past was able to escape and steal the Tesseract for himself.
The new series has Loki captured by the Time Variance Authority, a group dedicated to maintaining the timeline. Loki agrees to work for the TVA as a cover for his own escapades.
Speaking to IMDB, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige related that while WandaVision was a homage to classic sitcoms and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier a buddy-cop action-adventure, Loki is something else.
“[WandaVision] is probably the most overt level — black and white, old fashioned aspect ratio — but every show that we’re working on, I think is about creative swings for both Marvel Studios, the MCU and television. So I’m very excited about what we’ve already shown on Falcon and The Winter Soldier — that is a very big scale epic action buddy series that we’re excited about. Loki, we’ve not said much about, but is intriguingly different, and I think we’ve called it a ‘crime thriller’ — which is not something you would necessarily think of when it came to Loki.”
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Tom Hiddleston added his own observation: “So you have an institution that represents order, and a character that represents chaos. Therein begins the drama.”
Loki’s appeal
It may seem surprising to devote a series to Loki, a character who began as a pure villain taking over Asgard. But Hiddleston’s performance helped win over fans and turned Loki into a hugely popular character.
Hiddleston spoke to Empire on why he believes Loki became so popular with viewers even when he’s supposed to be the bad guy.
“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.”
The new series promises to build on Loki’s unique appeal, with Hiddleston keeping fans off-balance as to what the God of Mischief is truly after but enjoying keeping them guessing.
Loki premieres on Disney+ June 11.