Advertisement

What did ‘Thor: The Dark World’ add during reshoots? More Loki

Upon completing principle photography on “Thor: The Dark World,” the powers that be at Marvel Studios realized they had a slight problem: There wasn’t nearly enough Loki in the movie.

Loki, the Asgardian trickster and half-brother to Thor (played by English actor Tom Hiddleston), became a fan favourite after his villainous turns in 2011’s “Thor” and 2012’s “The Avengers.” However, the character originally didn’t have as big a role to play in this month’s “Thor: The Dark World.” Imprisoned for war crimes after the invasion of New York, Hiddleston was to have been a supporting character in the “Thor” sequel. The film follows Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and company as they defend Asgard and Earth from an ancient threat.

This summer, “Dark World” director Alan Taylor told Collider that producers planned to add more Loki to the film during reshoots, and recently revealed details about those additional scenes in an interview with /Film.

“It’s my experience with the Marvel process that they save a portion of the budget for this and that's what we were basically doing,” Taylor said of those extra shooting days. “A lot of it was getting more Loki stuff, because we realized how successful he was in the movie, so we sort of ‘Loki-ed it up’ a little bit.”

The director, whose previous work includes shooting episodes of “Mad Men” and “Game of Thrones,” said bulking up Loki’s role in the movie wasn’t merely about fan service (although the character’s popularity certainly played some role in the decision).

“There’s a connective thing at the beginning that bridges from ‘The Avengers’ story to sort of explains how Loki is in prison or why he is in prison,” the filmmaker said. “That was a very, very late addition. That was probably ‘more Loki is a good thing,’ but also we decided it was an expositional link that was needed for the audience.”

Without going into too much detail, the other late addition is a scene where Loki uses his shapeshifting power to goad his elder brother (a scene that reportedly features a cameo from one of the Avengers).

Fans of the Loki and Hiddleston will undoubtedly be happy to see more of the crafty demi-god in "Thor: The Dark World," but nobody knows exactly what the future holds for the character. There has been some talk of a standalone Loki movie, but Marvel hasn't made any official announcements. Loki-ites continue to hold out hope though, and have even petitioned Marvel to create such a film (garnering over 30,000 e-signatures!).

Are you happy to see an expanded role for Loki in the "Thor" sequel? Do you think the character is popular enough to headline his own Marvel movie? Let us know in the comments.

"Thor: The Dark World" hammers into theatres on Nov. 8.