'Loki': 'American Honey' And 'Utopia' Star Sasha Lane Has Been Cast In The Time-Hopping Superhero Series
Sasha Lane, whose breakout performance in Andrea Arnold's 2016 independent film American Honey arguably deserved Academy Awards attention, is heading to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Lane has reportedly joined the cast of Loki, the time-hopping Disney+ series that has Tom Hiddleston on board to reprise his role as the trickster god from the Thor and Avengers movies.
GoldenGlobes.com recently published a profile of the actress, and just before their interview segment of the piece begins, the author dropped a small nugget of news. The author states that Lane "will next appear in the superhero series Loki, starring Tom Hiddleston." Since GoldenGlobes.com is not exactly known for breaking news – especially this type of high-profile superhero casting news that the trades scratch and claw each other to be the first to break – I've reached out to Lane's representatives to get confirmation about this and will update this article accordingly if/when they respond.
But let's assume for the moment that this Sasha Lane Loki casting news is legit. Marvel Studios guru Kevin Feige and the various productions he's overseen in the past decade-plus have been exceptional at casting, and here is yet another example of them being able to attract another talented up-and-comer into the Marvel family. Her previous credits include Hellboy, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Hearts Beat Loud, and Daniel Isn't Real, among others.
There's no mention of what type of role Lane might be playing in the show (more on that in a second), but if true, she'll be joining Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Richard E. Grant, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the cast. Kate Herron (Sex Education) is directing the show, which will tie into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and address Loki's struggle with identity. The series follows the version of Loki who stole the Tesseract during the events of Avengers: Endgame and subsequently travels to different time periods to evade capture and wreak his particular brand of havoc.
In the Golden Globes interview, which is largely focused on her work in the new Amazon adaptation of Utopia, Lane revealed that she has not been a voracious reader of comics. "To be honest, it's never really sparked me," she said. "I found a couple of graphic novels that were true crime murder mysteries and that was kind of cool, but I've never really had that kind of interest in them, though this one is obviously good." Of course, a person doesn't need to be steeped in comic book lore to deliver a great performance in a comic book movie or TV series, but I wonder if this could mean that Lane might be playing a brand new character in Loki who didn't previously exist in the pages of Marvel Comics. I acknowledge that's a big leap, but since there's not much else to go on right now, why not speculate wildly?