Things We Saw Today: Hail Odin, Tom Hiddleston Will Star in Marvel’s Loki TV Show

The Loki series in development for Disney’s streaming service is definitely happening—and now we have confirmation that actor Tom Hiddleston is on board.

We were thrilled ’round these parts when Variety reported that both Loki and Scarlet Witch would be receiving TV shows produced by Marvel Studios—described more as big-budget mini-series—though Disney and Marvel have been mum about confirming anything officially. More recently, there was an additional report about the coming of a Winter Soldier/Falcon team-up show to join that lineup, so we’ve been living in a perpetual state of it being Christmas morning.

Now these gifts have multiplied, as it’s official that our fave thespian Tom Hiddleston will be starring as Loki in the show. According to MCU Cosmic, during Disney’s Q3 earnings call, Disney Chairman Bob Iger “officially confirmed a Loki series is coming to their new streaming service Disney+, and he confirmed that Tom Hiddleston will reprise his role in it.”

While it had been rumored that Hiddleston would return for the show, this is the first word from up on high on the matter. Needless to say, Loki fans are ecstatic, and even casual MCU watchers should be glad. Hiddleston is one of the finest actors in the Marvel pantheon and it was his performance that gave Loki depth and helped turn the God of Mischief from what could’ve been a mustache-twirling one-off villain into a nuanced antihero.

There’s still no word on where/when the Loki series might take place, as doing so would likely risk some major Avengers 4 spoilers. It’s possible the events of the Loki show (and for that matter, the other shows planned) will take place in entirely different time periods than Avengers 4; if you might recall, Loki is currently quite dead in the MCU. But there’s always the chance for him to come back from seeming death as he has before, or else explore gaps of what he was up to between past films: between Thor and The Avengers, say, or maybe what happened when he took over the rule of Asgard between Thor: The Dark World and Ragnarok.

With Loki even more than some of the more human characters, Marvel has the chance to venture off Midgard and into the wider galaxy—and it’s also an opportunity to explore the character’s canonical gender fluidity and pansexuality from the comics. (Our Kate Gardner wrote about the importance of Loki’s pansexuality making the jump from page to screen.)

It’s impossible for me to reign in my wild speculations, but what we know for sure is that Tom Hiddleston is a marvelous actor who has thought about this character through and through, and we can’t wait to see where he takes Loki—and us—next.

(via MCU Cosmic, images: Marvel Studios)

• This is a lot to process, so I’m just going to copy/paste the headline for expediency’s sake: “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted a doctored video of the Jim Acosta mic-grab that was shared a couple of hours earlier by the far-right site Infowars.” Yes, that’s one headline. (via Business Insider)
• Christine Blasey Ford is still being harassed (meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh has formally taken his Supreme Court seat), and she has been unable to return to her job. This is why victims often don’t report. (via NPR)
• Taron Egerton won’t return as Eggsy for Kingsman 3, which makes us wonder what the hell Kingsman 3 is going to be about. Hey, if Loki can come back from the dead, why not Merlin, and make Mark Strong the lead? (via Syfywire)
• It’s been a long week. Please wrap me in this cozy Snorlax robe, stat. (via Geeks Are Sexy) 

What’d you spot today, tricksters?

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