Up until Josh Brolin’s turn as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, it’s been pretty hard to argue against Loki being the MCU’s most successful villain throughout its rich, ten year history. Sure, he’s turned face, heel and back again more times than The Big Show (we all still watch wrestling, right?), but he’s always magnetic whether he’s with us or against us and we were gutted at his exit from the MCU. But how did Tom Hiddleston himself feel about the demise of the God of Mischief?
The man took to a panel at ACE Comic Con in Seattle this past weekend to set the record straight, as well as to reveal that his old acting mentor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor starred opposite him as the nefarious Ebony Maw in Loki’s final scene. Talk about things coming full circle, eh?
“It was three days and it was actually interesting,” Hiddleston recalled. “Ebony Maw is played by an Irish actor called Tom Vaughan-Lawler who was my mentor at drama school. I’d never worked with him and there we were on set and I was like, ‘Hey Tom, how’s it going?’ And he was like, ‘Oh, you’ve been doing this for much longer than I have.’ I also thought he was so great in the film. And there was a really nice moment of working with him again.”
When reminiscing upon working with Josh Brolin and Joe and Anthony Russo, Hiddleston had the following to say:
“Brolin was having the time of his life, sincerely. He was really enjoying the freedom. He loved working with the visual effects department and the motion capture because he did lots of tests before we shot. So I was feeding off his enthusiasm and the Russos were incredibly generous because they knew, well, this was the opening of their film and they knew the emotional weight of it and both of them were life, ‘Whoof, this is a big scene,’ and it did feel once we started it went very quickly and it felt kind of a…it was a big day.”
Talking about that skull-crushing finale itself, the actor revealed how emotional it made him, saying:
“The moment itself was really emotional. Like, the Russos came up and they were like, ‘Respect.’”
Of course, Loki has died and come back from the grave on numerous occasions before, but in order to further Thor’s narrative arc and increased prominence in the MCU, it seems unlikely that he’ll be resurrected to make another appearance. Although, I guess we should never say never.
That being said, it would certainly cheapen his death in Avengers: Infinity War a bit if he were to return, not to mention his arc has really come full circle. So, as much as we’ll miss him, it’s probably for the best that Loki stays dead this time, wouldn’t you agree?