Loki: Richard E. Grant Was “Threatened With Asgard-Like Demolition” to Keep Marvel Secrets

Marvel newcomer Richard E. Grant quips he was "threatened with Asgard-like demolition" to keep quiet about his role in Loki, where the actor plays an older "Classic" version of Tom Hiddleston's God of Mischief. A post-credits scene ending Episode 4 of the Marvel Studios series, "The Nexus Event," introduces Grant as the green-and-yellow-suited Classic Loki: one of several Loki variants trapped in The Void. Grant plays a small but pivotal role when he helps Loki Variant L1130 (Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) in their battle against Alioth, a giant cloud creature and protector of The Void, before dying with gleeful "glorious purpose" in the penultimate episode of Loki.

"I was given the whole episode [five script], which I was amazed by. But it was on pain of death. I was basically threatened with Asgard-like demolition if I revealed any information whatsoever," Grant told Paul's Trip to the Movies, referring to the utter destruction of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki's home in Thor: Ragnarok. "I didn't tell my daughter, my wife, I didn't tell anybody about this. I just knew that I was playing old Loki, a version of Tom Hiddleston's iconic character. That's as much as I knew."

It was Grant's role in another top-secret, high-profile production for Disney — the villainous Allegiant General Pryde in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — that taught the actor not to reveal anything about his secretive Marvel character. Episode 5 reveals Classic Loki escaped his fated death at the hands of Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War, growing old in exile before being pruned from reality by the Time Variance Authority.

"I was in the final Star Wars … having to keep a secret like that was so torturous, but it was balanced by the fact that I knew that my kneecaps would probably be removed by Disney if I did reveal anything about Star Wars," Grant said with a laugh. "Or I'd be cut out of the movie. So that kept me very, very quiet. I'd had a dress rehearsal for that, so when it came to Loki, I thought, 'Oh, I know about this.'"

He continued: "And the fact that it happened in the middle of COVID — I was there in October in this sort of window when I was allowed to leave England briefly — I thought, 'Oh, well, there's not too many people to tell.' You can't sort of go online and go, 'I'm just gonna call up a whole bunch of people and tell them I'm doing this!' So the universe conspired to make that easier for me."

Grant previously told ComicBook.com he "wouldn't say no" to a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, adding "everything's possible."

All episodes of Loki Season 1 are now streaming on Disney+.

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