The God of Mischief speaks about Thor 2

11 January 2012

Gerard Wood

This week, during a webchat hosted by Empire, Tom Hiddleston (aka Loki) let fall a few tasty morsels about the follow-up to Kenneth Branagh’s mighty Thor. The webchat was primarily concerned with Hiddleston’s latest movie, War Horse, but attention inevitably shifted to Thor 2 and the revelation, straight from the (War) Horse’s mouth, that filming will kick-off this summer in London. The release date has now drifted from 26 July 2013 to 15 November 2013, allowing Marvel Studios a healthy 18 months for filming and post-production.

It’s long been known that Kenneth Branagh would not be returning for the sequel, leaving some remarkably big boots for someone to fill. I've said it before and will happily repeat myself: more successfully than any other director adapting stories of comic book superheros for the screen, Branagh brought to life the magnificent capacity of the comic book for mythic storytelling but with a human heart. Thor is an unmitigated triumph of a superhero movie. At a time when the superhero comic book adaptation has come to dominate Hollywood’s offerings, it takes something exceptional to stand out from the crowd and Thor has that exceptional something. It's no surprise that the movie is heavy on action and humour, effects and big name actors, all of which is par for the course these days. What sets Thor apart from the crowd is (for want of a better word) a certain weightiness. To be sure, it’s there in the screenplay but I suspect that it would take a director with a similar background to Branagh - renowned Shakespearean actor and director that he is - to draw out so clearly what is a very human story from the doings of gods, kings and giants amongst men. After all, that's so often what it takes to bring the works of Shakespeare to life.

During the Empire webchat Hiddleston went on to confirm the recent announcement that Alan Taylor would be stepping into Branagh's shoes for the sequel. Although Taylor is a bit of an unknown quantity – he has no experience directing for the big screen - he does have an impressive TV CV, including episodes of Carnivale, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Mad Men and most relevant and impressive of all, my personal TV highlight for 2011, Game of Thrones. Taylor directed two episodes in Season 1, including the excellent final episode, and returned to direct a further four episodes in Season 2.

Taylor was not the only name in line for the directorial throne of Thor – fellow Game of Thrones director Brian Kirk was linked early on, followed more recently by Monster director, Patty Jenkins. Jenkins would have been the first female director of a major superhero movie but she left the project under mysterious circumstances - some say she quit over “creative differences”, others that she was shown the door by Marvel Studios - either way, Natalie Portman was apparently quite miffed at Jenkin’s departure.

Finally, Hiddleston had some intentionally unrevealing words of wisdom about Loki, an ambivalent character to say the least. Asked about what side of Loki’s character we’ll be treated to in Thor 2, he said "I don't want to spoil anything here. Loki's eternal predilection is to dance on the fault lines of villainy and redemption. I think whatever happens to him, he'll always keep people guessing."

As have you, Tom, as have you!

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