Tom Hiddleston Hosted a ‘Loki School’ To Help the Marvel Creative Team Get Ideas for Series
Tom Hiddleston knows a thing or two about Loki. He’s played the character for 11 years now and will reprise the role in Marvel’s upcoming Disney+ series of the same name.
Having first joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in 2011’s Thor, Hiddleston has seen his character from nearly every angle. In fact, he’s become such an expert on the God of Mischief that he was one of the primary people Loki’s creative team consulted with during the early stages of the show’s development.
Tom Hiddleston taught a ‘Loki School’ when Marvel started developing the show
When the time came for Marvel’s producers to start working on ideas for Loki, they knew Hiddleston would be the perfect person to talk to. Loki director Kate Herron reached out to him right away, and he provided a wealth of knowledge that she used to create the show.
“I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started,” Herron told Entertainment Weekly. “I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic.”
He had to educate Owen Wilson on Loki as well
Herron wasn’t the only one that relied on Hiddleston for Loki information, either. According to an interview with Sirius XM, Owen Wilson, a newcomer to the MCU, spoke with Hiddleston to better prepare for his role as Mobius, a member of the Time Variance Authority.
“Tom Hiddleston, who of course plays Loki, he kind of or we kind of—they were almost like the Loki lectures,” Wilson said. “And so he walked me through everything and the whole lore and showing me clips from the other movies and how it all fed into this story. So, it was really kind of Tom telling me about it and telling me about his character.”
During his conversation with Hiddleston, Wilson asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing Loki. According to his interview with Entertainment Weekly, Hiddleston told him that he loved the God’s versatility.
“I said, ‘I think it’s because he has so much range,’” says Hiddleston. “I remember saying this to him: ‘On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he’s the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.’”
Everyone’s excited to see Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson’s on-screen chemistry
Once Hiddleston got Wilson up to speed, Wilson felt a lot more confident moving forward with Loki. Now that the show is less than two weeks from airing, both fans and Marvel execs are excited to see how the two will play off each other on-screen.
Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he’s sort of nonplussed by the MCU,” says Feige. “[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it’s his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn’t give him the reaction he’s looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki’s not used to.”
Loki premieres on Disney+ on June 9.
