Loki Director Explains How They Got Owen Wilson to Join the MCU

We’re less than a week away from finally getting our eyes on Loki, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe series coming to Disney+. In addition to the return of Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the series will also feature some exciting MCU newcomers, including Owen Wilson as Mobius M. Mobius. Recently, Loki‘s director, Kate Herron, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and revealed how they got Owen on board for the series.

“He is playing a Loki expert, so at the beginning of production, Tom and I were talking. He devised this thing called Loki School. He did a big lecture to the cast and crew. I love the character. This is a decade of fans loving this character and where that character has been. It was talking everyone through that, but through Tom and his own experiences. Stunts that Tom liked or costumes. He ended up doing that same Loki school for Owen. Owen absolutely loved it. Owen has such a writer’s brain. I remember I had to pitch him down the phone. My heart rate [was up],” Herron shared.

“I love his work,” Herron added of Wilson. “‘Oh my God, I’m going to talk to Owen Wilson.’ He’s so laid back and nice, it immediately puts you at ease. It was the most detailed pitch I’ve ever done, to an actor, ever. I think I pretty much spoke through the entire first episode with him. You can tell he’s a writer, just by the way he attacks story. His questions about the world and the structure and the arc of the character. It was really fun to work with him.”

“It was the questions he asked, and the way he attacked story, in that sense,” she added. “And also probably because he was newer to the Marvel world, he was like, ‘OK, how does this work?’ I also pitched him Loki’s arc over the past ten years, where that character has gone, but also explaining our Loki and what happened in Endgame and time travel. There’s a lot to unpack in that conversation.”

Loki follows the version of the character after he escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame. In the new show, he’s picked up by the Time Variance Authority, who plans to force him to assist in fixing the timeline he helped break. The series offers the exciting opportunity to introduce new versions of various characters from across the Marvel multiverse. In addition to Hiddleston and Wilson, the show is set to feature Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku, and Richard E. Grant. In another recent interview, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige teased that Loki and Mobius “will be one of the most popular pairings we’ve ever had at Marvel.”

Loki will premiere on Disney+ on June 9th. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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