During a recent interview for Vanity Fair, Tom Hiddleston reflected on his career throughout the years, including his time as the beloved God of Mischief. When asked to speak about his new Loki show, Hiddleston drew attention to some of the major plot points of the series, stating that “the question for me now is, behind all the masks that he wears, is there an authentic self there that [Loki] is aware of?”
Loki’s motives, his deepest desires, and his true self are all things that have been brought to light during the series, and the overarching theme backing every episode is identity, or discovering what Loki’s real “glorious purpose” is. Loki goes deeper into the character than ever before to explore the person that exists beneath all the illusions and projections. Loki’s layers have been peeled back to expose the more “authentic self” that Hiddleston mentions in the interview, now that Loki has been able to watch his own life as a sort of third-party spectator.
RELATED: A TikTok Infinity Stones Theory May Have Cracked Loki's Mystery
Recently, it’s as if Loki is taking on the perspective of fans who have been chipping away at his character throughout his years in the MCU, focusing on everything that lives within him beyond the chaos and all the tricks. Distancing himself from his actions and taking the time to actually think about who he is and what he's done has allowed for Loki to start becoming the person he wants to be, not the person the Timekeepers (or the universe) have forced him to be in the past.
Hiddleston describes Loki in the earlier days as someone who “has lots of vulnerability and distress” because of his complicated upbringing. Living in Thor’s shadow under the critical eye of their father led to feelings of weakness, which Loki discloses very early on in the series, proving to fans that he isn’t evil, he simply feels like he isn’t good enough. This admission of weakness shows that Loki is, in fact, a very vulnerable character and it was one of the first nods to his “authentic self” in the series. Loki has become very self-aware on his journey to take down the TVA and although he might not know where he wants to end up after the battle is over, his priorities are definitely changing.
Hiddleston mused about the human experience in his interview, asking “Are we capable of change? Do we know who we are, really? Do we think we know who we are? Do we care?” and his performance as Loki on Disney Plus has demonstrated that, yes, people are capable of change. The version of Loki fans have seen over the last few weeks is miles apart from the Loki they met during Thor or even Avengers, because despite everything that’s going on with the TVA, Loki is very much a character study of the mischievous Asgardian fans have grown to love.
After all that Loki has been through, it’s understandable why he wouldn’t be sure what he wants his future to look like. Even Hiddleston doesn’t know what Loki desires according to the Vanity Fair interview, although his character arc in Loki hints that acceptance and belonging are the only things that the God of Mischief has ever truly been in search of. His thirst for power and penchant for destruction are all manifestations of the false hope Odin gave him as a child that he would one day be worthy of ruling Asgard, but episode 5 of Loki implies that ruling isn’t his endgame anymore. This episode showed how much character development Loki has undergone, and the conversation he had with Sylvie about what to do once they were finished with the TVA revealed that neither of them have much direction beyond the events of the series.
Now that Marvel has started tapping into Loki’s true potential, it’s hard to imagine him disappearing from the franchise forever, once Loki is over. The Loki variants are who they are because of their ability to survive, even when the odds are stacked against them. When Loki died in Avengers: Infinity War, a lot of fans felt like he wasn’t going to make it out alive that time. Thanks to the introduction of time travel in the Marvel Universe, Loki managed to come back better than ever, and if he succeeds in demolishing the TVA, there won’t be anyone left to stop him.
Loki’s story is far from over, especially now that he knows he’s capable of being someone good. A lot of fans are speculating that he will make a surprise appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to help the heroes restore balance to the world and fight in the upcoming multiverse war. With so much knowledge about the TVA and the sacred timeline, Loki would prove to be a valuable ally to Wanda and Stephen both, and it could be the perfect opportunity to reinvent himself as a hero. It’s obvious that Tom Hiddleston and Marvel fans still have a lot left to learn about their favorite trickster, and the events of Loki prove that he’s just getting started.