One of the biggest entertainment boons of 2019 will be the standalone streaming service Disney+, which is set to deliver tons of exciting new projects. One such project will be a live-action series centering on the mischievous god Loki, which MCU star Tom Hiddleston is involved with. According to one new rumor, though, Hiddleston won't necessarily be Loki's main portrayer on the small screen, and could be limited to a voiceover role.
According to this new rumor, the Loki TV series will be told from the sometimes amiable villain's point of view as an older man verbally looking back on his earlier years. If that would indeed be the case, then the Disney+ series would likely need to put out a casting call for a younger actor to take on the role. How young would the actor need to be? That detail is still up in the air.
Note that the introduction of the younger Asgard god would not be an unprecedented move in the Marvel universe, and not just because a younger actor played him in Thor. After all, Kid Loki is a legitimate entity in the comics, and is basically a self-preserving reboot of the character's older self after he'd martyred himself to save his planet. (That's a vast understatement, considering all the fantastical details involved.) The younger iteration would absolutely be a fantastic way to explore the character in a serialized TV show, too, even without the rebirth element.
For one, Kid Loki isn't as evil as his preceding adult version, and he shows remorse for all of the heinous and deadly acts he'd committed in the past. That kind of backwards-compatible evolution would be fitting for Tom Hiddleston's MCU Loki, who has necessarily needed to side with his brother Thor on occasion.
Plus, if Marvel does indeed chose to go with the Kid Loki approach for the new series, then that might be a sign that the creative teams are looking to get a little weird with the comic characters for the expanded scope that television provides. In the sense that Loki has also been able to transform into other beings during his existence, from other characters to animals to a unicorn. (Sure, Legends of Tomorrow had a unicorn recently, but not a Loki one.)
Even if this rumor was 100% true, it still wouldn't negate Tom Hiddleston's presence outside of voiceover narration. Even if he's mostly telling stories about his past adventures, or whatever the wraparound narrative would be, the show could sporadically take place in a more current setting to, for example, show us who he's talking to. Or perhaps the show could have Modern Loki needing to reflect upon moments from his past in order to accomplish something. A plethora of ideas could be explored.
Yes, one presumes the story will have a very specific time frame, in order to lock in with how Avengers: Infinity War handled Loki's story. And one could even start speculating that the introduction of a younger Loki could lead to a new chapter of the MCU tied to the Young Avengers.
However, this bit Loki news is still unconfirmed, so we're technically just as in the dark about it as we are about several other Disney+ projects, such as the Scarlet Witch and Vision series. Or the Monsters Inc. spinoff series. Or the other Star Wars stuff that isn't Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian, which we still only know a little bit about.
No release date or release window has been set yet for the Loki series, but we'll definitely be keeping our horns close to the ground for further updates. Until then, keep current with all the other superhero (and supervillain) shows making up the midseason premieres.
