Tom Hiddleston Says He's Merely 'A Temporary Torchbearer' Of The Loki Role

I don't want to acknowledge the possibility of a Marvel Cinematic Universe without Tom Hiddleston in it. I love him very much. I was on the set of the first "Thor" film and when I spoke to him, he was so excited about the role, he was practically jumping up and down. As recently as July 2021, Hiddleston said, "If I were asked to play Loki for the rest of my life, would I? Yeah, absolutely."

So what is this news? Well, Loki stans, Hiddleston spoke during a panel discussion for the Disney+ series "Loki," hosted by the Royal Television Society, alongside his co-star Sophia Di Martino (per Variety). They were discussing the Loki variants in the series, like Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant), Alligator Loki (some very talented CG artists), and of course, Di Martino's Sylvie Loki variant. Regarding the different actors who have now played Loki, Hiddleston said: 

"I'm a temporary torchbearer. I've always thought that. It's a great role. It's an archetype, the trickster god, the agent of chaos. I'm just here interpreting that for the time being. Loki has been here for centuries and will be here for centuries more and I'm just stepping into that silhouette for now."

Before you lose your grip on sanity like I did for a moment, think about this. Loki is a shapeshifter. He can be any gender. He can be any animal – and that's just in this universe. Now that we have the entire multiverse thing happening in the MCU, literally anything a writer can dream up can happen. Heck, we saw Frog Thor in "Loki!" 

I'm not saying that Hiddleston won't get bored and do something else. Maybe he's tired of the horns and the wig. Maybe he loves it and will play Loki as long as Marvel will let him (and Marvel, he needs to play this forever). I think the reference here is to the actual Norse deity that this character is based on: Loki has been around for centuries, and will be remembered as long as we have the writings he comes from, or writings about those writings. The trickster archetype is omnipresent in some form or another in so many mythologies around the world. One show isn't going to end and poof, he'll be forgotten — any more than Zeus or Venus would be. 

At least, I hope that's what he's saying. It soothes me to think so. Either way, Hiddleston's Loki will be back in "Loki" season 2. He's not (as far as we know) appearing in "Thor: Love and Thunder," and with no one even realizing who he is at the end of "Loki" season 1, where we'll see him again outside of the series is very much up in the air. Still, Loki is a trickster, so maybe this is just to throw us all off. That's so Loki!