- Primary Subject: Tom Hiddleston's retrospective on playing Loki and future MCU expectations
- Key Update: During a Zurich Film Festival panel, Tom Hiddleston revealed how Kevin Feige originally pitched Loki as the main protagonist for The Avengers early on in Phase 1.
- Status: Confirmed
- Last Verified: September 25, 2026
- Quick Answer: Tom Hiddleston recounted Kevin Feige's early Marvel vision to cast Loki as the ultimate crossover villain, while teasing what lies ahead for Avengers: Doomsday.
From a single villainous turn to becoming the living anchor holding the entire Marvel Multiverse together, Tom Hiddleston's journey as Loki remains one of the greatest character arcs in superhero cinematic history.
Speaking at the Zurich Film Festival to promote his upcoming Everest survival drama Tenzing, the British actor opened up about the early days of Phase 1, sharing the exact pitch Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige gave him that laid out the groundwork for how the God of Stories starts heading into Avengers: Doomsday.
Tom Hiddleston Shares How Kevin Feige Pitched His Loki as an Avengers Villain
Reflecting on his audition and early casting for 2011's Thor, Hiddleston admitted that he never expected to play the mischievous god for over fifteen years. However, Kevin Feige had a master plan long before the viewers understood what a cinematic universe was.
During his early days on the set of Thor, Feige pulled Hiddleston aside to reveal that his journey wouldn't end with his brother's solo movie.
"He said: 'Well, we've made an Iron Man film, we're going to make a Thor film, we're going to make a Captain America film, and then we're going to make an Avengers film, which is Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, the Hulk and Hawkeye forming a team," Hiddleston shared with Variety. "In the first edition of the first Avengers comic, from 1967, the villain is Loki, and we want you to be the villain."
Feige's pitch referenced Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's landmark 1963 comic book debut, The Avengers #1. Hiddleston credited Feige, late screenwriter Don Payne, and director Kenneth Branagh's early vision of giving Loki the tragic and complex familial depth that would allow audiences to empathize with him despite playing the big bad.
In that sense, Hiddleston still "never expected" to play the God of Mischief "for this long", and is all the more grateful to return post-Avengers: Endgame, considering that the Loki variant he plays is essential as the God of Stories.
What Fans Can Expect From Tom Hiddleston's Loki in Avengers: Doomsday
After evolving from a world-conquering villain into the self-sacrificing God of Stories holding the temporal branches together at the end of Loki season 2, the question on every Marvel fan's mind is how Loki fits into the upcoming spectacle, Avengers: Doomsday.
When pressed about his potential return or the fate of his character in the upcoming team-up film during the festival, Hiddleston remained tight-lipped under Marvel's legendary secrecy protocol and merely said that Doomsday "is coming."
It is worth mentioning that the British actor had previously teased that Doomsday is "magnificent" and "will defy all your expectations", the same way it had "defied his."
Whether Loki serves as a pivotal multiversal target for Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom or operates as a silent observer safeguarding the timelines, Hiddleston promises fans that the scale for Doomsday will be unlike anything Marvel Studios has produced before.
Avengers: Doomsday premieres on December 16, 2026, in the UK, and December 18, 2026, as a standard North American theatrical debut. Stay tuned!
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