He's the "torchbearer" for now...
It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to know that one of the biggest superheroes (anti-heroes? villains?) doesn't see himself playing the role for the remainder of their acting career.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki won't last forever, and the actor knows that his time as the god of mischief is limited.
Speaking as part of a panel discussion in London yesterday about the Disney+ original series, which has a second season on the way, Hiddleston described himself as a "temporary torchbearer" for the character.
"I'm a temporary torchbearer," Hiddleston said. "I’ve always thought that. It’s a great role. It’s an archetype, the trickster god, the agent of chaos. I’m just here interpreting that for the time being. Loki has been here for centuries and will be here for centuries more and I’m just stepping into that silhouette for now."
Tom Hiddleston was joined by his 'Loki' co-star Sophia Di Martino, who plays Loki variant Sylvie in the action series. Writer Michael Waldron and director Kate Herron also joined the discussion.
Hiddleston's comments shouldn't come as too much of a shock to fans, especially considering how many times his version of Loki has returned to the MCU. Even just going by his most recent silver screen appearances (where he was killed, and then later disappeared with the Tesseract in hand during some Avengers time-hopping), Loki returned very much alive to helm his own Disney+ series.
'Loki', however, introduced a number of different variants stemming from the son of Odin, including the aforementioned Sylvie. Richard E. Grant also shows up as Classic Loki in the latter half of the season, along with Kid Loki ()Jack Veal), Boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei), Vote Loki (Hiddleston again), and of course Alligator Loki (as well as some other Easter Egg versions such as Tour de France Loki and Frost Giant Loki).
With all of these variations of the character out there, there's a wealth of iterations we could potentially see further down the line should the actor step away from the role. For now, though, we've got season two of Hiddleston's 'Loki' to look forward to.