TOM AFTER TIME

Tom Hiddleston talks playing god

Will we see a different Loki now he’s no longer in Thor’s shadow?

Loki needs to evolve. The cycle was: Loki is trusted, he betrays, he becomes a villain, he learns to trust again, he’s betrayed, he becomes trusting again, he can be trusted again, then he betrays or feels betrayed. It’s just this endless cycle of trust and betrayal and resistance. And the character is essentially singing the same song over and over and over again. He’s trapped on a wheel of repetition, a compulsion to repeat the same damage, the same story. We are breaking that record. We’re releasing him from that trap. In this story, we’re showing that he can change, that he can grow.

What does the Time Variance Authority want with Loki?

If you have done something to alter the course of history, or alter the course of the future, according to the TVA, you get pulled into their headquarters and processed as a time criminal. You could literally have done anything. The TVA is an organisation that orders and polices the passage of time. They have predetermined what happens in the past, the present and the future, in a straight line. And if you do anything that deviates from that, or creates an alternate branch of reality, you get hauled into the TVA and charged with crimes against the timeline, and you’re in a time prison, basically. It will come as a surprise to no one that Loki is one of those time criminals. He has pushed the boat out. He’s broken too many of his restrictions.

You’ve been playing Loki for a decade. Why is he still a fun character to explore?

I’ve always felt an affection for him and for his vulnerability. This time around is the first chance, perhaps for a while, that I’ve had to see if we can really break the mould and change him, and retain all the best aspects of him – but try to get underneath all of his defences. I think that is a really interesting kernel of an idea inside the story. Is Loki capable of change? If he does change, will other people allow him to change? Can Loki get out of his own way? Can Loki make different choices? And if he does make those choices, where does he go next? It’s been really exciting to find a way of striking the balance between respecting what’s come before and inventing something new.