For years – nay, generations – Odin Borson, the warrior king of Asgard, protected much of the Nine Realms from threats near and far, building a legacy on three principal values: responsibility, duty, and honor.
Those same values are eventually passed down to Thor, God of Thunder, as he begins to stake a claim to the Asgardian throne. Loki? Not so much. Tom Hiddleston’s unruly trickster has always struggled to escape from his brother’s shadow, breeding jealousy and contempt. Not only that, but it appears Loki’s callousness ultimately leaves the door open for Hela to emerge in time for Thor: Ragnarok.
Last seen perched on the Asgardian throne – masquerading as the late Odin, no less – Tom Hiddleston’s Loki looks set to enjoy a sizeable role in the November threequel, which ought to please those fans left disappointed by the character’s absence from Civil War. And true to form, the God of Mischief has been up to no good.
Here’s what Hiddleston told Screen Rant in a recent interview:
[When] we left Loki, he kind of achieved his goals, he became the king of Asgard, and he is ruling that place. And what we come to learn, what Thor comes to learn early on, is that there’s a lot of terrible things in the cosmos that just shouldn’t be that way. And we learn that Odin was doing far more than it seemed on the surface to keep the universe safe.
As we alluded to before, it is Odin’s absence that allows Loki to exert his dominance on Asgard and its people, which may go some ways to explaining that heated exchange between Thor and his step-brother in the recent Ragnarok featurette.
Hiddleston continued by drawing attention to Loki’s fickle, callous nature, and how that results in Hela laying siege to Asgard:
There were all these threats that he had quelled or was keeping at bay, using his strength and power to do so, that Loki was completely unprepared for. So he becomes the King of Asgard, everything is great, it’s a good party. But he failed to realize the threats that were just over the horizon, Hela being the biggest and most terrible one of all.
The grim reaper will descend upon Asgard on November 3rd. But tell us, are you excited for the release of Thor: Ragnarok? Let us know in the usual place.