As you likely know by now, season two of “Loki” ended last week, and the ramifications of the series have echoed on. And Tom Hiddleston finally did the press rounds now that the strikes are over, talking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
What are those consequences? Well, Spoiler ahead for those that haven’t seen “Loki,” go it?
While yes, season two was full of that complicated “timey wimey” stuff that confounded and made some of the series hard to follow, what you really learn is that in the end, Loki made a great sacrifice, basically taking responsibility for the multiverse problems he helped as a variant in the series, and banishing himself in exile at the end of time, seemingly forever, holding the multiverse together as his final sentence.
Now, the big question remains: given “Loki” season two is its last, the series is over, and the story is told, does that mean we’ll never see Hiddleston as Loki again, maybe up against Kang possibly? Given all that’s happened to the character so far, the actor said he would never rule out the possibility of the character returning and him being game to do so.
Is he saying goodbye to the character for good?
“It’s hard to say,” He admitted to Entertainment Weekly. “I’ve made the mistake in the past of tying things up with a bow and saying goodbye and thinking it’s all over. And then, the phone rings a year later [from Marvel], going, ‘Hey Tom, what are you doing in a couple of months?’ So, I’m keeping an open heart and an open mind. But it does feel that there is a poetic redemption to where we are, and I felt very honored to perform that.”
“I feel very proud of where we’ve landed in the end,” he continued. “Where we are right now is all I know, and it felt really meaningful to come full circle.”
Hiddleston echoed many of the same stories and notions on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. The actor also talked about the final line he says to his friends, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Mobius (Owen Wilson), and the entire team, “I know what I want. I know what kind of god I need to be. For you. For all of us.”
Hiddleston explained it was a callback to the first “Thor” movie, a line he improvised and suggested and one that helped things come full circle all the more resonantly, given the emotional journey of a character who began selfishly and ended in great, self-aware sacrifice.
“It’s the line that Loki says to Odin at the end of ‘Thor,’ and he is—it’s a desperate plea for approval and validation,” he explained to HSC. “It’s a cry for help from a son who feels he doesn’t belong, and it doesn’t work, and it’s heartbreaking. This time, it’s— this Loki has lived through that moment and understands something much deeper, and it just felt like a kind of, ‘I actually now understand. Now I understand what I have to do. It’s not about me, it’s about you.’”
To that end, self-awareness and identity are a big part of what the series was thematically, Hiddleston told EW.
“I knew we were trying to chase an answer to that question: What is Loki’s glorious purpose?” Hiddleston explained. “Season 2 is asking: Are we in charge of our own story? Can a leopard change its spots? Can Loki change? Can the TVA change, given a second chance, with enough introspection and responsibility? Is there free will? Are we truly in control of our destiny? That seemed to me to be very, very deep water to be working in, and we found it thrilling at every turn. I hope the audience does as well.”
That final analysis will be in the eye of the beholder, but all of seasons 1 and 2 of “Loki” are available now, and you can watch them on Disney+. And you can watch the entire 50-minute conversation with Tom Hiddleston about all Loki’s ins and outs below.