The Cast of ‘Loki’ Spills Details on Disney+’s Anticipated New Marvel Cinematic Universe Series

Loki, the new Disney+ series, will premiere on July 9 and is a continuation of the character Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and picks up where Avengers: Endgame leaves off with him disappearing after picking up the Tesseract. 

“The Tesseract, also called the Cube, was a crystalline cube-shaped containment vessel for the Space Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones that predate the universe and possess unlimited energy.” For those in need of a refresh, Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and Ant-Man were sent back in time during the Battle of New York to retrieve the Time, Mind, and Space Stone which was housed within the Tesseract. Loki was able to grab the Tesseract which he then used to escape custody by vanishing.

The God of Mischief is bringing all types of witty and charming events to this time travel series. Glitter attended the global press conference for Loki, where we learned how the series came to be with the stars of the series. Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Judge Renslayer), and Owen Wilson (Mobius), as well as the showrunners Kate Herron (Director), Michael Waldron (Head Writer), and Kevin Feige (Producer), answered burning questions on a virtual Q and A. Read on to find out what they had to say on the audition process, the comedic aspect of the series, and what makes the character Loki tick.

Tom Hiddleston when asked if he probably thought a couple of years ago that he had played Loki for the last time and what went through his mind when he got the call that he was getting his own series replied, 

“A combination of delight and surprise. I think, is probably the accurate way of describing it. I was so excited by the idea and also had to scratch my head of it because that scene in Avengers: Infinity War had felt so final. It felt so conclusive, as the end of Loki’s story, but I knew that Avengers: Endgame was coming around the corner. In that scene, in that film, Loki picks up the Tesseract and disappears in a puff of smoke. Where does he go? When does he go? How does he get there? Kevin, Louis D’Esposito, and Victoria Alonso all reassured me that that would be the starting point of the series. There were so many places we could go, so many possibilities to think about. And then I was in due course, you know, everybody that you can see either up there or over there or over there jumped on and had had so many brilliant ideas and created this new show which I think is really exciting and I’m happy to be doing it. “

When asked if Loki is a bit of a misunderstood villain and what he hopes the audience will take away from the extended story of Loki and his exploration of growth in this series Hiddleston stated,

“What I love about the series is Loki is stripped of everything that’s familiar to him, Thor is not close by, Asgard seems some distance away. The Avengers, for the time being, aren’t in sight. He’s stripped of his status and his power. And if you take all those things that Loki has used to identify himself over the last six movies, what remains of Loki? Who is he, within or outside all of those things? I think those questions became, for all of us, really fascinating to ask what makes Loki Loki? And if there is something authentic or something at the center of him, is he capable of growth? Is he capable of change? And do his experiences within the TVA give him any insight into who he might be, this mercurial shapeshifter who never presents the same exterior twice? Yeah, I hope the audience get a kick out of where we take it.” 

Glitter asked Wunmi how excited she was to be a part of Loki and how she prepared for the role. She stated, 

“I was so excited; I didn’t know I was auditioning for Loki. I had been given some sides for an audition and sent it into the ether and thought, “Well, it’s top secret. So it’s probably really important.” So then I got a phone call in the middle of the night saying I’ve been offered a part in Loki; I was like, “When did I audition for Loki? OK, yeah, sure.” (laughing) And it was really exciting. And then Tom and Gugu, we were at drama school together. So I felt like even though it was terrifying being like the idea of joining the MCU, because it’s like this huge thing, like knowing that I was going to walk into the room and have friends there. Like I’ve known Tom since I was 18, my first year at RADA. So it felt really, really good. A little bit daunting still because there was a thing about acting with your third year. There was something in that. But it was great.”

Gugu, having known Tom from drama school also was asked if it helped form the relationship between Judge Renslayer and Loki. Mbatha-Raw replied,

“Yeah, it’s so weird, the circle of life, and the sort of broad reunion, there is a comfort like you say, and I’m so proud of everyone. And it’s wonderful to see your generation rise and as I say, stepping into this surreal epic, larger-than-life world. But when you have a shared experience, when you remember the same acting tutors, and you walk down the same corridor in the same canteen, and you know all of these cultural references that we all had, especially as we ended up shooting in the pandemic, you know, it was a real comfort to have these longstanding relationships and friendships.”

Gugu Mbatha-Raw shared that Loki is more of an origin story for her character, stating, “…it predates some of the stuff in the comics. All that stuff is there but there is also the opportunity to feel like I’m starting something fresh with the TVA that hasn’t been seen before by fans on the screen…there’s so much potential for her in the future as well.”

When asked if she knew she was auditioning for Loki, she laughed and stated,

“Well, I didn’t actually audition. I had a long chat with Kate initially on the phone. And it was just so thorough, so passionate, and just the detail. So I did know it was Loki, I have to say. (laughing) But, um, but yeah, it was a whole other aspect of the MCU, with the TVA that was kind of a lot to get my head around, but so exciting.”

Tom was also asked if he knew it was Loki he was auditioning for, and he replied, “This time around. Ten years ago, I didn’t know I was Loki, actually. So maybe that’s the whole thing when you join Loki; you’re not quite sure that it’s Loki; maybe it could be something else.”   

Now that the character Loki is one of the longest-tenured in the MCU, Tom was asked if there was an extra sense of gravity in playing Loki and if that may have impacted his performance. He continued, “I just love playing the character, and I always have, and I feel so fortunate that I’m still here and there are still new aspects of the character every time that I learn about it; I think he’s a character of a huge range. So it never feels like the same experience. Particularly this time around, I’m surrounded by these amazing people. To me, like, it’s not something that is lost on me is, you know, all my conversations with Kevin and Kate and Michael and my interactions with Owen and Gugu and Wunmi, like we just had a really good time. And I think because of Loki’s complexity, maybe that every time he’s in a new dynamic, new stuff emerges. Yeah, I’m just amazed, this is a comedy? I think Loki would be quite surprised by that (laughing).”

Kevin Feige, Kate Herron, and Michael Waldron all chimed in on how Thor and Loki became two of the funniest characters in the Marvel Universe.

Kevin replied, “I think they all had a certain amount of humor in the comics over the many decades, but the answer comes down to the performers and to the remarkable talents of Mr. Hemsworth and Mr. Hiddleston, and the range of talents to be very RADA trained, Shakespearean and also hilarious, or in the case, Hemsworth to be just, you know, have the dramatic chops and the humor and embracing all of the above. So it wasn’t necessarily a conscious plan to say, “Let’s make them even funnier now.” They would have just always been funny and we took that from behind the scenes and decided we wanted to put it on camera over the more recent years.   

Kate responded, “Like Michael, we both have comedy backgrounds. So I think that we would bring that to our work that we do. And also, Tom is so witty. So, yeah. I mean, I think, Tom, you always describe it right as keys on the piano with different parts of Loki, and you can’t have Loki without the wit. So it’s going to definitely bring that to the show.”

Michael concluded, “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that’s the joy of working with Tom is he can sell the comedy so effortlessly. You know, I was coming off of Rick and Morty, I think maybe out of the gate, I was trying to step on the gas at the comedy, perhaps too much. I had to recalibrate and shift this thing to a more dramatic place. And that’s the great thing about this character: you don’t have to write jokes. Loki is going to make just regular exchanges funny and fun and engaging just the way he interacts. So, yeah, that I think that was how we approached it. We just trusted Tom to do all the work.” 

Be sure to stream Loki on Disney+ on June 9.