Tom Hiddleston Reflects on Filming Loki During the Pandemic

Marvel Studios has been on a pretty long streak with their upcoming Phase Four slate of projects and one of the highlights was Loki. Loki brought back Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief after he met his demise at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. The series began filming before the pandemic but was ultimately put on hold until the industry figured out the right protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Hiddleston recently spoke with The Gentleman’s Journal, where he discussed the last day of filming the series as well as how it was filming during the pandemic.

“On the last day on set of Loki’s first season, after the very last shot, we all, without instruction, seemed to stand in a circle — with nowhere to go, with the job done, and clapped,” Hiddelston revealed. “It’s hard to describe the feeling of relief, of the gratitude we felt for each other, for every member of our cast and crew. Filming had been interrupted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic one-third of the way into our planned schedule — we locked down for five months — and we restarted after that first hiatus to resume exactly where we had left off, and to finish the story.”

“For the next twelve weeks, everyone working on Loki was in a contained bubble. And finishing those last months was, for most of us, during that time, our only human contact. On that last day, we had made it through the pandemic and told our story, before any vaccine against Covid-19 had been made available, and with a company, a cast and crew, who — in my experience — supported each other with a spirit, care and kindness in a way I have never seen before. ‘Whatever happens to this series’, I thought, ‘whichever way it goes, the making of it was meaningful. There is meaning in the doing’.” The Loki star added.

Michael Waldron, who wrote both Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Loki, recently revealed the big problem with Marvel Studios’ use of the multiverse. The scribe thinks we should proceed with the multiverse very cautiously. During a previous discussion with SFX Magazine, the Loki and Doctor Strange writer scribe detailed how Marvel Studios use of the multiverse could become a double-edged sword.

“The danger is you can expand your scope too wide, and you can actually reduce the stakes if you don’t make it personal as you go bigger and wider. But the opportunity in the multiverse is to have characters confront literal ‘What ifs?’ and alternate versions of themselves and perhaps others in their lives. It’s an interesting way to hold up a mirror to characters,” Waldron said. “In every way, it shapes the emotional heart of the story. It has to. The multiverse isn’t just a MacGuffin where we’re like, ‘Okay, this is just a kitschy thing that we’re playing with in this movie.’ If you’re faced with alternate realities and with alternate versions of yourself that has to become the emotional heart, exploring who you might be if you were a different version of yourself, if you made other choices, the right choices or the wrong choices. It’s complex stuff, emotionally, and that’s exactly why it’s so thrilling and so great for a cast as dramatically talented as this one.” 

Marvel Studios describes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as follows: “To restore a world where everything is changing, Strange seeks help from his ally Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, and the Avengers’ most powerful Scarlet Witch, Wanda. But a terrible threat looms over humanity and the entire universe that no longer can be done by their power alone. Even more surprising, the greatest threat in the universe looks exactly like Doctor Strange.” 

The film is directed by the legendary Sam Rami and will star Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Benedict Wong as Wong, Rachel McAdams as Christine Palmer, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/ Scarlet Witch, Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo. 

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Loki season one are exclusively streaming on Disney+!

What did you think about the first season of Loki? Let us know in the comments below or by hitting up our writer @NateBrail on Twitter!