Loki Star Tom Hiddleston Calls Playing President Loki “Surreal”

Full spoilers for Loki episode 5 below! We should have known once the Loki variants started showing up in Loki that any footage we saw in the trailers for the show may be a little misleading and this week’s episode confirmed it. Central to much of the promos for the show was an image of Tom Hiddleston in the “Vote Loki” outfit as seen in the pages of Marvel comics. As this episode confirmed, “President Loki” was yet another variant of the character and in fact a very totalitarian variant at that. In a new interview, Hiddleston opened up about playing this version of the character, calling him the worst of the bunch.

“That was quite surreal,” Hiddleston told Marvel.com. “President Loki is almost the worst of the bad bunch. It certainly felt this way; he’s the least vulnerable, the most autocratic and terrifyingly ambitious character who seems to have no empathy or care for anyone else….Doing them both in the same scene was slightly mad, but in an enjoyable way. And fun, too, because it was about leaning into Loki as a pure villain, or his capacity to be a pure villain.”

The actor also opened up about the moment in the same episode when he fully grasps that he’s surrounded by Loki variants including “Classic Loki,” “Kid Loki,” “Boastful Loki” and even Alligator Loki.

“In that moment, the character who looks least like Loki is me,” Hiddleston added. “It was like being at some sort of surrealist party. It was brilliant. I just enjoyed it so much. And my character, Loki, is completely out of his depth and a fish out of water. And it was such an enjoyable thing to play.”

As viewers noticed in the episode, President Loki seemingly met his end at the hands of Alligator Loki and the other variants. Episode 5 of the series appeared to be the all-Loki special ahead of the season finale, but a re-appearance by the character could definitely happen down the road especially if the show returns for a second season as rumors seem to suggest.

The first five episodes of Loki are now streaming on Disney+ with only one episode remaining. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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