Tom "Loki" Hiddleston Admits He "Fights Everybody" in The Avengers
Posted 09.06.11 by Ryan
Outside of Tom Hiddleston's return as Loki for Marvel's upcoming adaptation of The Avengers, the studio, as well as writer-director Joss Whedon, refuse to officially announce the other antagonists that aid Loki in his quest to wreck havoc in Midgard (Earth), despite the presence of set photos and other evidence that all seem to point in the same direction.
Of course, the return of Loki, who is likely looking for revenge on his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth), could be more than enough for "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" to handle. Especially since, in an interview with IGN, Hiddleston revealed that Loki will "get to fight with everybody."
Every single superhero, every single Avenger, every single wonderful actor playing every single superhero. And it's great. What Joss has encouraged me to do is to kind of stoke a fire of unpredictability and joy. And here you have a true god of mischief who is enjoying the chaos he creates. And that's part of the fun of playing a character like that. You get to do some incredibly cool things, and smile through it.
Set photos and videos already gave a sneak peek at Loki fighting with Captain America (Chris Evans), though it appears from Hiddleston's comments that no one on the team is safe. Of course, comic book fans would likely bristle were Loki excluded from an Avengers adaptation since the character was, as Hiddleston explains, the team's first ever adversary.
The very, very first edition of the first Avengers comic is all of them on the front and they're going up against Loki because Loki's come down to Earth and he's trying to get back at his brother and he mind-controls the Hulk. And it takes Iron Man and Thor and Captain America and the other Avengers to stop him. Actually, I'm not sure that Captain America is in that comic. He might be. [He's not—Ed.] Anyway, there's a very rusty Iron Man. He's not quite as streamlined as he is now. ... But I love the fact that there's a kind of adherence to the original comic-book mythology.
As recently revealed in set photos from the New York-portion of the Avengers shoot, Hiddleston will be sporting a new "badass" look as Loki. "It's a little less princely, if you see what I mean," Hiddleston explained. "In Thor, Loki is a prince of Asgard. But by the time The Avengers starts, Loki's been around the block of the universe." The look only adds to the "feral" performance that, according to Hiddleston, Whedon is demanding.
Just inhabiting him every day, it demands such a level of intensity and a kind of volatile energy. And Joss is constantly saying, "More feral. Wilder. I want feral. Give me feral." And a lot of time I'm throwing myself around. Throwing myself through walls and onto the floor and getting up and dusting myself off and doing it again. It's fun, but I wake up with cracks and bruises for sure.
Hiddleston isn't complaining, nor is he ready to give up playing the character. In what is bit of a spoiler (though certainly expected, especially by comic book fans), Hiddleston hints that audiences haven't seen the last of Loki by the end of The Avengers.
One has to ask the question philosophically, how much contentment and inner peace can be found in destruction and world domination?What's fascinating about Loki is that there is all of that complexity within him. There is such range. And I hope in the course of future Thor films and Avengers films that Loki will change again. He's known in the comic books as a perennial shapeshifter. And who knows? He might be recruited back to the good side. His time will come. I love playing every flavor, whether it's the lost prince of Asgard or the power-hungry maniac of Avengers. It's all good.
Next Showing: The Avengers opens May 4, 2012