Iron Man's 'Avengers Initiative' Scene Happened In Real Life - To Tom Hiddleston

Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe became far too ubiquitous, it was but a glimmer in the eye of producer and self-professed fanboy Kevin Feige. The head of Marvel Studios always had a grand vision, even when the first movie in phase one of the MCU, 2008's "Iron Man," debuted and changed Hollywood forever. It wasn't enough to have scored a hit, Feige needed world domination. And he'd get it.

But before he could shovel endless amounts of superhero media down our collective gullets, the ambitious producer needed to lay the foundation for his master plan of a shared cinematic universe. In order to do that, Feige would do what so many studios have tried and failed to do in the wake of his example — take the necessary time to establish each character and their world. That took the form of several mostly standalone films that introduced all the characters that would eventually form a superhero dream team in 2012's "The Avengers."

The same year "Iron Man" debuted, Feige unleashed "The Incredible Hulk," followed by "Iron Man 2" in 2010. Then, it was time to introduce the masses to the God of Thunder himself, Thor. 2011's "Thor" was the first time we saw Chris Hemsworth as the hammer-wielding hero, but it was also the first time we saw Tom Hiddleston portray the now fan-favorite Loki. Back then, despite Hiddleston's nuanced performance lending the character some redeeming qualities, Loki was in full villain mode. But unlike so many one-and-done MCU villains, this not-so-bad guy would end up sticking around while Feige played out his cinematic grand plan over the following decade or so.

In many ways, Kevin Feige is the real-life Nick Fury, at least within the context of the behemoth of a Hollywood machine he's constructed. Fury himself might be enduring some hard times of late, but the character was the chief architect of the original Avengers team that debuted to such fanfare back in 2012. In reality, the real architect was Feige, who expertly orchestrated the historic team-up with his patient world-building via standalone superhero movies.

That all began at the end of the very first MCU film, "Iron Man," which featured a now famous post-credits scene in which Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury emerges from the shadows at Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)'s home. Fury tells Stark, "You've become part of a bigger universe, you just don't know it yet," before delivering the final line, "I'm here to talk to you about the Avenger initiative" — ah, when post-credit scenes were actually exciting.

In this moment, Fury basically became Feige's avatar, notifying audiences around the world of the producer's grand plans just as the MCU was kicking off. At the time, there wasn't even any guarantee that the whole enterprise would work. But Feige was clearly confident, and wanted to start dropping hints about his vision for a massive cinematic shared universe as early as possible. As things progressed, the Marvel Studios head would go from speaking through Nick Fury to basically becoming the S.H.I.E.L.D director in real life.

By the time "Thor" arrived in 2011, it was clear that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios were on to something and "The Avengers" film was pretty much guaranteed. At that point, Feige assumed the role of a real-life Nick Fury when he called Tom Hiddleston into his office to deliver the news that his character would be sticking around after "Thor."

Ahead of the launch of "Loki" season 2, Total Film revisited various interviews with Hiddleston, including one where the actor recalled an early meeting with Feige around the time of "Thor." He said:

"He called me into his office, and said, 'Congratulations on 'Thor.' This is going to be great. And I'd like to talk to you about 'The Avengers.' I said, 'What?' He said, 'Well, this is what I'm planning to do. I'm going to make a Captain America film after this, and then we're going to put them all together. We've made 'Iron Man.' And we're going to make 'The Avengers.' It's going to be all of them, plus the Hulk and Black Widow. And I want you to be the villain, because in 1963, Loki was the villain for the first Avengers comic.'"

Hiddleston recalled his surprise at learning he'd signed up for a "more epic journey" than he'd originally thought. Now, of course, the character is an MCU mainstay. But at the time Hiddleston must have been as excited as Tony Stark to hear the news of Feige's planned superhero team-up.

Despite the two already knowing each other, we like to think Feige stepped out of the shadows and reintroduced himself to Hiddleston, à la Nick Fury in the post-credits scene — perhaps with an eye patch for good measure.

Interestingly enough, Tom Hiddleston previously told Entertainment Weekly that he learned about plans to keep Loki and build a shared universe before filming commenced on "Thor". The outlet noted that Kevin ​​Feige "first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before 'Thor' started shooting," with the Loki star remarking, "I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead." Hiddleston continued:

"That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Whether Hiddleston learned of Feige's intentions before or after "Thor" was shot, it must have been a thrilling moment. It's well known that the actor originally auditioned for the part of Thor, but was still happy to learn he'd be playing the hero's brother. As Hiddleston told Total Film, after being cast he gained a sense of director Kenneth Branagh's "vision, and the scope, and the epic nature of the story," and "understood that Loki was going to be a very significant role and a thrilling antagonist." But to then be told that he'd be returning for "The Avengers" must have been close to overwhelming.

Now, with "Loki" season 2 promising a more heroic version of the titular character, Hiddleston has come full circle. Having originally auditioned to play the lead in what he thought was a one-off comic book movie, he's now portrayed a beloved villain across multiple films and TV shows, and now, a decade after auditioning to play Thor, has finally become the hero.