Marvel Studios’ Disney+ series just keep on coming! After WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier dropping earlier this year, things keep on rolling with Loki gracing our screens this summer.
The series features the God of Mischief as he steps out of his brother’s shadow in a new series that takes place right after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Tom Hiddleston returns as the title character of Loki. Marvel Cinematic Universe newcomers for this series are Time Variance Authority members Owen Wilson (Mobius M. Mobius), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Judge Ravonna Renslayer) and Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15). Other characters will be introduced as well, including mysterious ones played by Sophia Di Martino, and Richard E. Grant.
Shadow and Act chatted with the cast including Hiddleston, Mbatha-Raw and Wilson ahead of the series premiere in which they teased the series and spoke about it coming together.
For Hiddleston, he says that he really thought the end of Loki’s story was going to be when he was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, though we know the 2012 version of the character was able to escape during the time-traveling events of Avengers: Endgame.
“I thought Infinity War was the end,” the actor admitted to Shadow and Act. “We’ve all seen the movie and we know what happens to Loki in that movie. I remember while I was there. I thought, ‘Well, there’s no coming back from this.’ I think even Thanos says, ‘No resurrections this time.’ I thought maybe that was the end of the line for me. Then I got the call saying they wanted to make a series about Loki. I was really surprised and delighted, but that was when I thought…because there was always stuff in my own research about the character, ‘Oh, were there some other things we can do that we haven’t done.’ So really exciting for that reason but it was never part of a long-term plan, at least not my plan, [but] Marvel Studios…they have all the cards [laughs].”
On being a part of the show, Mbatha-Raw added, “I think it was really talking to Kate Herron, our amazing director, who pitched all of the six episodes to me over two hours on the phone. In terms of Renslayer’s journey and how she fits into the world of Loki, I was really intrigued. I think knowing Tom Hiddleston as were at drama school together many moons ago…I knew I was really excited for him that he was going to be able to have his own show with this character he’s been playing for 10 years.”
This isn’t the actress’s first brush with superhero territory, as she also starred in 2019’s Fast Color. “I knew [this] was going to be a bit different. As you said with Fast Color, I’m always looking for characters and projects that have a different perspective on things we think we know. Certainly, with Renslayer and the TVA, that is a completely different perspective of the MCU which we haven’t seen before. I was excited by that and also the fact that it’s based on an antihero villainous character, which I think is a bit refreshing to be able to be following and rooting for an antihero. [It’s] always quite fun.”
“The dynamic [between Mobius and Loki] is sort of a chess match,” said Wilson. It’s very hard to have the upper hand with the God of Mischief. And the tools at my disposal [are] I have the TVA behind me and the weight of that bureaucracy. And that’s formidable. That does allow me to sometimes actually get the upper hand, but of course, you can never be confident with Loki that you’re going to have it for long.”
The actors wouldn’t give away too much, but did give us a few hints of what’s in store.
“I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think Loki is confronted by aspects of himself that he’s never fully even imagined were part of him,” said Hiddleston. “Those confrontations are revelatory and then compel him to take a new course of action and a new direction in his life. I know for sure, it’s something that Marvel has never done.”
Check out the entire conversations but watching the full interviews below:
Loki debuts June 9 on Disney+.
