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TV Casting: Tom Hiddleston, Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett and More

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in Marvel Studios’ ‘Loki,’ exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Someone apparently decided that today was TV casting news day!

Still, there is a lot of TV casting to report, so let’s kick off with Loki’s return to the small screen. Well, actually, it’s Tom Hiddleston, who is now attached to his second Apple TV+ series following upcoming drama ‘The Essex Serpent’.

‘The White Darkness’ comes from another Apple veteran, ‘Pachinko’ creator Soo Hugh, who will run the show alongside ‘Strange Angel’s Mark Heyman.

The series is inspired by the true-life account of Henry Worsley, played by Hiddleston, a devoted husband and father, a former soldier, a man of deep honor and sacrifice, but also a man deeply obsessed with adventure, manifesting in an epic journey crossing Antarctica on foot.

Deadline’s report offers no details on when the show will start shooting, but there’s a fair chance that it’ll have to wait until after the next season of ‘Loki’ is filmed.

(L to R) Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2005’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith.’

Next up, there’s a development on the TV version of movie spy thriller ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’, which had been moving ahead with Donald Glover and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, at least until the latter left over creative differences.

Now, though the actress and writer has been replaced by someone who similarly broke big by writing and starring in a show: ‘Pen15’s Maya Erskine will star opposite Glover in the story of married agents whose marriage is strained because they’re both so busy. That gets even more complicated when they discover that they’ve been contracted to eliminate each other.

Glover announced Erskine’s casting as part of an Interview magazine article where he interviews himself. He also let slip that he’s busy writing the season finale of the Prime Video show.

Continuing with streaming services owned by Amazon, Neil Gaiman’s adaptation of his 2005 novel ‘Anansi Boys’ is adding a wealth of cast led by Whoopi Goldberg.

The Oscar winner, who has recently been seen reprising one of her iconic small screen characters, Guinan, on ‘Star Trek: Picard’, has signed on to play the villainous Bird Woman in the fantasy series.

‘Anansi Boys’ is the story of Charlie Nancy (Malachi Kirby) — sometimes known as Fat Charlie (it was his father’s nickname for him; he’s not fat) — a young man who is used to being embarrassed by his estranged father (Delroy Lindo). But when his father dies, Charlie discovers that he was Anansi: Trickster God of stories. And he learns that he has a brother. Now that brother, Spider (also played by Kirby), is entering Charlie’s life, determined to make it more interesting — but making it a lot more dangerous instead.

Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan of the Paramount+ original series ‘Star Trek: Picard.’ Photo: Nicole Wilder/Paramount+ ©2022 ViacomCBS. All Rights Reserved.

Goldberg’s Bird Woman is, as her name might suggest, the God of Birds. Bird Woman is the God of Birds and a key antagonist in the series. Anyone who’s had a close encounter with a seagull knows that some birds are more dangerous than others, and Bird Woman is the most dangerous of them all. Long ago Anansi did her wrong. Now may be her chance to turn the tables.

“I have been a fan of this book for a very long time and when Neil Gaiman told me it was being brought to the screen, I did everything I could to be part of it to help make people aware of Anansi and all his magic,” Goldberg says in a statement.

According to Gaiman, it was a fortuitous meeting that led to Goldberg’s casting. “When I first conceived ‘Anansi Boys,’ decades ago, I imagined Whoopi Goldberg as Bird Woman,” Gaiman said. “I wasn’t able to meet her until 2018, when she interviewed me with some of the ‘Good Omens’ team at New York Comic Con. At which point she mentioned that she had just finished listening to Sir Lenny Henry’s reading of ‘Anansi Boys,’ and that it was one of her favorite books. Sometimes things feel planned and inevitable, and we are incredibly lucky. She’s going to be scary.”

And she’s not the only mythic creature the Nancy family will have to worry about. Alongside Goldberg, the cast now includes Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Tiger, Emmanuel Ighodaro as Lion, Cecilia Noble playing Elephant, Ayanna Witter-Johnson as Snake and Don Gilet playing Monkey.

The various animal deities all have their own reasons for disliking Anansi – they mostly hate him for his trickster behavior, though Monkey is terrified of him.

Gaiman and co-showrunner Douglas MacKinnon (who worked alongside him on ‘Good Omens’ and its sequel series) are busy making the show in Scotland now.

Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane in ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout,’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

On to Netflix next, where the casting is movie related, but we’re keeping it here since it’ll debut on the streaming service. And it’s another fantasy title, this time with Angela Bassett joining ‘Damsel’.

The movie will star Netflix stalwart Millie Bobby Brown, who plays a princess is shocked to discover that she’ll be sacrificed to the kingdom’s sacred cave dragon, after being married to her prince charming. She must survive long enough until someone comes to save her – only no one is coming.

Bassett will play Lady Bayford, the stepmother to Brown’s Elodie, while Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is directing from a script by Dan Mazeau.

Heading right back around to Apple, there’s word that Andre Holland will play Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton, who was able to escape a massive, nationwide manhunt to avoid prosecution for murder with the help of Bert Schneider, the Hollywood producer behind ‘Easy Rider’, as well as a few other celebrity radicals.

Newton ended up in Cuba and his story was told in a Playboy article by Joshuah Bearman. Now ‘Claws’ showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois is working on a six-part limited series adaptation called ‘The Big Cigar’, which has Don Cheadle amongst its producers (and serving as director for the first two episodes).

And finally, we head to Disney+, where Lucasfilm is making history by casting an openly trans actor in one of its productions.

Warwick Davis in 1988’s ‘Willow.’

In this case, Britain’s Talisa Garcia has been cast in ‘Willow’ as a queen, the mother to Tony Revolori’s character.

The ‘Willow’ series, which is set in the same universe as the 1988 fantasy movie, follows a princess who assembles a party to join her on a quest to rescue her twin brother. Warwick Davis is reprising his role as the title character.

And before you think this is Disney looking to generate some positive press in the wake of the “Don’t Say Gay” controversy over Florida politics, Garcia’s casting happened months ago, and the show is now in post-production for a planned launch this year.
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April 7, 2022
From ‘Blade’ to ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ Everything We Learned from the Marvel Comic Con Panel (It’s a Lot)

Marvel Studios

This year’s San Diego Comic Con has been a mostly sleepy affair, with most of the major movie studios forgoing splashy presentations, leaving buzzy television series to pick up the slack. (In all fairness, that “Watchmen” trailer rules.) So there was a certain amount of built-in hype for Marvel Studios’ return to Hall H (they skipped last year); not only has the 2019 cinematic landscape been largely defined by the studio (thanks to hits like “Captain Marvel” and “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” and the release of the juggernaut “Avengers: Endgame,” which just surpassed “Avatar” as the highest grossing movie ever) but much of their upcoming slate has been a mystery, a muddled brew of conjecture, half-truths and wishful thinking. So this afternoon, in San Diego, the air was cleared. In a breathless 90-minute presentation, “phase four” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, encompassing theatrical releases and new productions for Disney’s forthcoming direct-to-consumer streaming platform Disney+, were meticulously detailed. And far from a saggy slate, this crop of titles is exciting and experiment. After so much change and so much success, Marvel Studios seems ready to mix it up. And we couldn’t be more excited.

In an effort to streamline our reporting, we’ll go in the order they went in Hall H. Just strap in. It’s a wild ride.

Marvel Studios

After quickly showing a MCU greatest hits reel and announcing “Avengers: Endgame’s” box office milestone, Kevin Feige introduced the cast and crew of “Eternals,” set for release on November 6, 2020. Director Chloé Zhao appeared onstage with a ridiculously stacked cast, including Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff (the “first deaf hero” in the MCU), Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee and, the queen herself, Angelina Jolie.

As far as kicking things off with a bang, this was pretty great.

Nanjiani said that he’d been to Comic Con eight times before but that this was the first time he’d gotten into Hall H. He then made a really cool analogy for the MCU. “It used to be like ‘Casablanca’ had everything – action, drama, thriller and movies had to be little genres. Is this a comedy? Is it a thriller? Marvel is a throwback to those old school movies because they have everything,” he said. “I’m just excited to be able to do all that.” Jolie, for her part, didn’t take the role lightly. “What it means to be a part of the MCU to be a part of this family, we know what the task is and we are all going to work very, very hard,” Jolie said, sounding both humble and very determined.

Marvel Studios

After “Eternals,” we were then treated to a look at “The Falcon and the Winter Solider,” a new series scheduled to hit the Disney+ streaming service in August 2020. Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie appeared on stage and Feige described the setting of the show as “post-‘Endgame,’” but besides that, details weren’t exactly revealed … oh, except that Daniel Bruhl, who played the villainous Baron Zemo in “Captain America: Civil War,” will be back (and presumably, up to no good).

Marvel Studios

Next was a look at the film for February 12, 2021: “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Not only is that title new (and quite a mouthful!), but Feige detailed how the Ten Rings, a famous terrorist group in Marvel history, has been planted as Easter eggs in a ton of the movies (serious, “Ant-Man!?!”) but now it will really get to take center stage. Tony Leung, one of our greatest living actors, will play the real version of The Mandarin (you’ll remember Ben Kingsley infamously played a phony version of the character in “Iron Man 3”), alongside Awkwafina (in an undisclosed role) and newcomer Simu Liu as the titular hero. Liu said he was “cast on Tuesday,” and said the casting was “a fulfillment of my dream.” Director Destin Daniel Cretton said that he’s excited to create an MCU film that “reflects all the beautiful colors I see in this room. To be a small part in that is really special to me.”

Marvel Studios

After that we got a brief (and I mean brief) look at “WandaVision,” the upcoming Disney+ series that concerns Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany’s characters from the MCU along with a very cool surprise, the addition of Monica Rambeau, who we last saw as a child in “Captain Marvel,” now played by the wonderful Teyonah Parris. Everyone on stage described the show as “strange,” with Feige saying it’s “unlike anything we’ve done before,” and Bettany calling it “surprising and weird.” It looks, in part, to be based on Tom King’s recent, highly celebrated comic book run and if the logo is any indication will have a retro 1950’s aesthetic. Look for it in spring 2021.

Marvel Studios

Another Disney+ title we got a taste of is “Loki.” Feige said that after “Endgame,” “The question I got asked more than any other was: where did Loki go?” Well, as it turns out, a lot of places, thanks to his use of the space stone. Tom Hiddleston, always the fan favorite, says that this will be a less evolved Loki than he currently sits in the MCU. Think first “Avengers” Loki. “Just about the last thing that happened to him was he got Hulk smash. There’s a lot of psychological evolution that has yet to happen,” Hiddleston said. “Kevin has shown me what his plans are but it is one of the most exciting, creative opportunities I’ve ever come across. This is new territory, a new world, new challenges. I cannot wait to get started.” He’ll beam into your homes spring 2021.

Marvel Studios

Next, the film hitting theaters on May 7, 2021 was revealed: the sequel to “Doctor Strange,” with the tantalizingly rococo title “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Feige started by saying that just because Jake Gyllenhaal was lying to our beloved Peter Parker, doesn’t mean that a multiverse doesn’t exist. But when returning director Scott Derrickson walked out on stage, he let loose an even bigger bombshell: “We’re going to make the first scary MCU film.” Whoa. (Feige quickly said: “It’s a PG-13 movie and you’re going to like it.” So no R … yet.)

Benedict Cumberbatch came out on stage and said that “This twist of horror will really have people gripped. He’ll be in a position of not knowing what’s coming at him. We’re going back to trying to destroy him a bit.” Olsen was then brought back out on stage; she’ll be fighting the forces of darkness alongside Strange in this outing and she remarked that the storylines of her show and the “Doctor Strange” sequel will be linked.

Marvel Studios

Next up: summer 2021 on Disney+, the first “animated series from Marvel Studios,” “What If.” It’ll feature Jeffrey Wright from “Westworld” as the voice of The Watcher and “a huge majority f the actors in our movies will reprise their roles,” taking on alternative takes on characters and scenarios you already love.

Marvel Studios

Jeremy Renner then emerged, making his way through the crowd, to help announce the “Hawkeye” “limited series” (none of the other shows were described as such) coming to Disney+ in the fall of 2021. What’s more, as Feige said with great pride, the series will be responsible for “bringing Kate Bishop into the MCU and we’ll explore more of his time as Ronin in this series.” Renner seems pumped about the series (which, based on the logline and the logo seems to be derived from Matt Faction’s amazing series): “What I think Hawkeye is a superhero without superpowers. And I get to train somebody else to be a superhero without superpowers. It’s an amazing sentiment. I think that’s fantastic.”

Marvel Studios

And then we got to talk about the third film of 2021, coming November 5, 2021: “Thor: Love and Thunder.” Writer/director Taika Waititi has returned to the franchise and he was joined on stage alongside Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Waititi said he was inspired by the Jason Aaron comic book “The Mighty Thor.” “It introduces, for the the first time, female Thor.” He said there was only one person who could carry the hammer (and carry the hammer, out onto the stage, she did) — Natalie Portman, making her return to the MCU after a somewhat contentious shoot on “Thor: The Dark World.” People were shook. This is a huge surprise. Portman said that inheriting the role of Thor, “Feels pretty good.” She then said: “I’ve always had some hammer envy.”

Marvel Studios

At the tail end of the panel, we were treated to May, 2020’s film, “Black Widow.” We saw some footage, which looks very “Mission: Impossible”-y, and Scarlett Johansson was joined onstage by her amazing cast (including an incredibly charming David Harbour from “Stranger Things”). We’ll do a deep dive into the footage and everything a bit later, but at the end of the panel, the cast walked on stage with their Black Widow hats for a big group photo. They were then joined by everybody else who had been a part of the presentation (all wearing their Black Widow hats, which I noticed were considerably higher quality than the ones that were handed out) and then, at the very very end of the presentation, after Feige had bemoaned the fact that he didn’t get to talk about “Black Panther 2” (!), or “Captain Marvel 2” (!!) or “Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3” (!!!) or talk about “Fantastic Four” or the plans for the mutants (!!!!).

Marvel Studios

Then he brought out two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali. Feige said that Ali had another hat he’d like to wear. And then he put it on and it said “Blade.” It’s unclear whether or not it’s a TV series or a movie, but goddamn are we pumped.

July 20, 2019
Why ‘Thor: The Dark World’ is Still Marvel’s Worst Movie

Marvel Studios

Five years later, Thor’s first sequel still leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

For a company that prides itself on the uniformity of its productions, both visually and thematically, in an effort to create a consistent shared universe, people’s ideas about which Marvel Studios movie is the worst varies wildly.

There are some that feel “Iron Man 3” was too tonally askew from the previous two Iron Man film. Some folks are convinced that “Ant-Man” is too slight for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially in the run-up to this summer’s bleak superhero free-for-all “Avengers: Infinity War.” But for our money, there is a clear outlier in the MCU, standing apart not just for terribleness but for its absolute disposability, and its name is “Thor: The Dark World.”

Let’s pause for a moment and talk about the development of “Dark World,” which by all accounts was an absolute nightmare, even by the chaotic standards of Marvel Studios at the time. The studio initially hired Patty Jenkins, who wanted to go with a bold new interpretation, having Thor face off against the Enchantress and making that pocket of the universe lusher and more female. Of course, that didn’t happen, and Jenkins was fired and the female villain was nixed, reportedly because of a suggestion from Ike Perlmutter — the reclusive, far rightwing CEO of Marvel. He suggested that female action figures did not sell as well as others.

Natalie Portman, who aligned herself with Jenkins, was noticeably unhappy and Jenkins went on to direct a little superhero movie called “Wonder Woman.”

Marvel then turned to Alan Taylor, the director of a number of memorable “Game of Thrones” episodes, to oversee the project. Taylor wanted to make things grimier and more authentic. It didn’t exactly turn out that way. During the run-up to his second feature, 2015’s “Terminator Genysis,” he told Uproxx that, “The Marvel experience was particularly wrenching because I was sort of given absolute freedom while we were shooting, and then in post it turned into a different movie. So, that is something I hope never to repeat and don’t wish upon anybody else.” Welp.

What made the first “Thor” so much fun was that it was Marvel’s equivalent of “Splash.” Thor (played wonderfully by Chris Hemsworth) is a spoiled god who gets banished to earth and has to find his true power before returning to his kingdom. As it turned out, watching a god bumble around suburban New Mexico is really very funny. (Even, at times, through Kenneth Branagh’s Dutch angle-d lens. This visual approach gave it a somewhat more campy “oomph.”) This is why, somewhat tellingly, the best parts of “Dark World” involve some kind of comedic interaction or misunderstanding based around the intersection of the magical and the mundane — Thor hanging his legendary hammer up on a coat rack, Darcy (Kat Dennings) asking Thor how space was, etc.

Marvel Studios

But, again, these moments are few and far between and the rest of “Thor: The Dark World” is an absolute slog.

The villains are a band of dark elves (led by Christopher Eccleston, who took over for Mads Mikkelson, who left shortly before production began) only slightly more threatening than the Keebler variety, and the entire movie feels slapdash and slipshod, like it was assembled after the fact from disparate elements that nobody knew where to put. Portman reluctantly returned, but is saddled with the lamest of lame storylines, accidentally stumbling upon the otherworldly MacGuffin (a slithery, red goop called the Aether). Starting a movie with such flagrant coincidence is like building a mansion on quicksand; from there on in, all the movie does is sink.

And things that you might have thought, “Oh there’s no way they could screw that up,” well, they do. Loki’s return, for the first time since the events of “The Avengers,” should have been full of huge moments. But the character is poorly utilized and awkwardly re-introduced. (Tom Hiddleston, for his part, just looks bored.)

And the action sequences, usually the first thing developed for the movie by a team of very smart people, fizzle, too. There’s a sequence towards the end that, thanks to some mystical something-or-another, sees Thor fighting across multiple planets/realms. This inventive climax should have been an unforgettable showstopper. Instead, thanks to some drab visuals and half-finished effects, it falters. Royally. (At least we got that very funny Chris Evans cameo, scripted by Joss Whedon, when Thor has a walk-and-talk with Loki posing as Captain America.)

But maybe the most criminal aspect of “Thor: The Dark World,” beyond its lack of entertainment value and sluggish pacing, is the fact that it doesn’t add anything to the larger MCU. Nothing.

Sure, the Aether, clumsily establishes itself as one of the cosmic Infinity Stones that Thanos comes charging after in “Avengers: Infinity War,” but it was hard to even recognize that as a “stone,” given that most of the time it’s a column of nebulous CG goo. Other than that, the movie is entirely skippable. Almost all of the characters from “The Dark World,” save for Stellan Skarsgard’s kooky scientist, have failed to show up again in the universe — Portman, Dennings, and Eccelston haven’t returned, even in the subsequent “Thor” movie (the brilliant, bonkers “Thor Ragnarok”). Missing this film in the lead up to “Infinity War” meant nothing.

It’s throwaway quality, noticeable upon initial watch, has only grown in magnitude since. This is unquestionably the worst Marvel movie, one that should have been forever banished to the furthest corner of the galaxy.

November 6, 2018
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki Among MCU Characters Getting Own TV Series on Disney Streaming Service: Report

Marvel Studios

You want more Loki, including more Tom Hiddleston? You got it. Or you may get it, if Variety‘s report pans out.

Variety is a pretty trusted source, so “Avengers” fans should feel free to get their hopes up fairly high.

According to Variety, Disney’s upcoming streaming service “is in early development on an ambitious plan for a number of limited series centered on popular characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These series will likely include shows centered on Loki and the Scarlet Witch, along with other beloved superheroes who have yet to appear in their own standalone movies.”

Variety added that the original MCU stars — including Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Elizabeth Olsen as Scarlet Witch — are expected to play the characters in the Disney streaming shows. Each show is expected to have six to eight episodes, the site added, and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is expected to have a hands-on role in each show’s development.

Sounds pretty awesome from here.

Marvel Studios

It’s not clear if, say, Loki’s series would be a prequel set before “Avengers: Infinity War” or if fans should REALLY get their hopes up and it’s set after the events of “Infinity War” and maybe also “Avengers 4.”

Insiders emphasized to Variety that “Avengers” characters/stars that have gotten their own movies will not get their own series. This will focus on “characters who have served as second tier characters in the MCU.”

It may also be a sign that these characters will not get their own standalone movies. But what about a character like Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)? Would he get his own series on the Disney streaming service, or will Marvel Studios give him his own standalone series at some point in one of the next MCU phases?

At any rate, this Disney streamer just keeps sounding better — and yet worse to our wallets. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, etc. Can we get a streaming tax break? There’s no word yet on when the Marvel series would start production or premiere. The Disney streamer itself doesn’t even have an official launch date, other than 2019. But last we heard, Netflix will stop getting Disney/Marvel family shows starting with “Captain Marvel.”

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September 18, 2018
First ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Photos Show Off Chris Hemsworth’s New Haircut

Hey, Thor — nice haircut!

The first photos from “Thor: Ragnarok” were released by Entertainment Weekly, which has the upcoming Marvel sequel on its cover. And Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is sporting a new shorter ‘do.

In the third movie in the “Thor” franchise, the titular character doesn’t just get a new look — he’s also without his hammer, stuck on the super colorful planet Sakaar, where he has to battle his onetime friend, The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), in gladiatorial games.

Sakaar is “basically where every wormhole across the universe dumps out its trash, so you get people from all walks of life with all sorts of incredible abilities and powers,” Hemsworth told EW. “No one cares what prince or king Thor may have been in another world. Also, his strength is pretty easily matched with those he finds himself amongst.”

The photos also include glimpses of Cate Blanchett’s villain Hela, Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster, and Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie.

And of course, let’s not forget the deliciously bad Loki (Tom Hiddleston):

“Thor: Ragnarok” opens in theaters November 3.

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March 8, 2017
How Tom Hiddleston Helped Brie Larson with Blockbuster Shock in Kong: Skull Island

Brief Larson from Kong: Skull Island

How Tom Hiddleston Helped Brie Larson in Kong: Skull Island

Brie Larson built her acting resume on TV shows like “Community” before starring in “Room,” a low-budget drama about a mother and son locked away in a room. The powerful film earned her an Academy Award and suddenly made her one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood, signed for the mega-budget “Avengers: Infinity Wars,” “Captain Marvel” and this week’s release “Kong: Skull Island,” as a peace activist photographer coming face to fury face with filmdom’s most famous ape.

“It’s really exciting. I mean, it’s a part of history,” Larson tells Made in Hollywood reporter Patrick Stinson. “I don’t think I knew really what to expect. I had never done a film of this size before. So every day was sort of magical and surreal and exciting.”

Brie Larson Says She’s Still Adjusting to Making Big Budget Films Like Kong: Skull Island

Helping Larson make the leap from TV shows and indie films to big budget fare was “Skull Island” star Tom Hiddleston, who has made a career balancing modest movies like the Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light” with the “Thor” tentpoles.

“Most of my stuff is with him, and I had never done a big movie like this before, and he had done quite a few of them — and well at that,” she says. “So it was just really great that he was there to be so helpful and teach me how to do this, because it’s a completely different art form and not one I’m used to.”

How Brie Larson Reacted to a Computer-Generated King Kong in Kong: Skull Island

One of the biggest challenges in acting in a special effects extravaganza was performing with a character who didn’t exist on set — King Kong — who’d be generated later in a computer.

“I never really met him,” laughs Larson. “I didn’t meet him at all. I just worked with a tape mark. He never showed up. … I guess it wasn’t so bad. I just used my imagination, which is a huge part of what I do anyway, and this was an extension of that.”

“Skull Island” also gave Larson the opportunity to recreate an iconic cinematic moment: being held in the hand of the giant beast, a scene etched into movie history by Fay Wray in the 1933 original and later by Jessica Lange in the 1976 version.

“It was a really great day for me, actually, because generally my days consisted of running and jumping and climbing,” Larson says. “And that day I just got to sleep on a little pad. I loved it.”

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March 8, 2017
Tom Hiddleston Only Imagined the Big Ape While Shooting Kong: Skull Island

Tom Hiddleston from Kong: Skull Island

How Tom Hiddleston Acted Opposite an Ape That Wasn’t There in Kong: Skull Island

Some stars can be so temperamental.

Take the headliner from “Kong: Skull Island,” who only did his work long after his costars left the set.

Of course, the fact this 100-foot-tall ape had to be computer generated had a lot — well, everything — to do with it, but still the other actors had to adjust.

“Six months it took to film this in three locations in Hawaii, Australia and Vietnam, and every day my professional requirement is to imagine there are things that I am looking at that don’t exist,” says “Skull Island” star Tom Hiddleston. “It’s like playing tennis with only half a tennis court, and finally, when you see the finished film, they have put the second half of the tennis court in, and Kong is returning service.”

Tom Hiddleston Didn’t See Kong Until Screening the Finished Kong: Skull Island

Hiddleston tells Made in Hollywood reporter Patrick Stinson the wait was worth it. When he finally saw the big guy on screen, “It is quite something. It’s really amazing.”

Hiddleston’s enthusiasm for the project developed early — he signed on for “Skull Island” before the script was finished.

“There was a story and a character and this idea of setting it in the 70s, and they asked me to play this action hero,” he says. “First of all, I’ve never been asked to play an action hero. Second of all, I’m being asked to play an action hero in a King Kong movie. This is a great day.”

Tom Hiddleston on His Disillusioned Character in Kong: Skull Island

As Capt. James Conrad, Hiddleston plays a disillusioned British special forces soldier with an expertise in jungle survival and the recovery of lost soldiers.

“He’s seen a lot of action in war and probably come face to face with some unimaginable horror,” the actors says. “When we meet him at the beginning of the film he’s kind of lost. He’s lost his sense of of purpose and he takes a commission to join this expedition to the island, but with really no sense of what awaits him there. I love the journey of the character, that he starts in a quite complex cynical place but the island awakens a humility in him, that he’s a actually inspired by it, and it gives him a sense of wonder again that perhaps he had lost before.”

Shooting “Skull Island” instilled a different kind of wonder in Hiddleston.

“Obviously Kong doesn’t show up for work, but the production was massive,” he says — so big that one scene had Hiddleston perched high atop a crow’s nest with costar John Goodman while a helicopter buzzed by with the camera.

“The helicopter was doing laps around the airfield and getting so close to me as almost like giving me a little haircut,” Hiddleston says. “That’s when you know you’re in a big movie, when the camera is not just on a tripod, it’s actually on the front of a helicopter and it’s doing laps around your body.”

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March 6, 2017
Tom Hiddleston Teases Loki’s Role in ‘Thor: Ragnarok,’ Chris Hemsworth’s Hilarious Performance

Tom Hiddleston has always brought a certain humor and charm to his mischievous villain Loki in the “Thor” and “Avengers” movies, and that won’t change in the upcoming threequel, “Thor: Ragnarok.” But this time around, Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, is also getting in on the goofy fun.

In an interview with Fandango, Hiddleston teased what Loki will be up to in “Ragnarok,” which picks up with the character after the events of 2013’s “Thor: The Dark World.” Though he wouldn’t say much specific, based on the actor’s description, Loki and Thor’s reunion certainly sounds like it will be entertaining.

WATCH: @twhiddleston on #ThorRagnarok, @TaikaWaititi and where we pick up w/ Loki this time around.
via @Fandango & @NikkiNovak pic.twitter.com/7RxzOvNm2X

— ErikDavis (@ErikDavis) February 19, 2017

“At the end of ‘The Dark World,’ Loki is on the throne,” Hiddleston explained. “At the beginning of ‘Ragnarok,’ Thor has a few questions and Loki is endearingly enigmatic about providing answers.”

“Endearingly enigmatic” sounds like exactly the right combination for Loki. As for the God of Thunder, Hiddleston says he’ll start to pick up some of his half-brother’s humorous habits, with Hemsworth finally getting to flex his comedic muscle in the superhero series. According to Hiddleston, Hemsworth bonded with director Taika Waititi, and the pair “brought out the best in each other and started making stuff up.” That all led to Thor cutting loose on the big screen.

“I can confidently say this will be the funniest depiction of the character of Thor that you’ve ever seen,” Hiddleston told Fandango. “I personally have known for almost 10 years that Chris Hemsworth is hilarious. I think this go-round will be his chance.”

Anyone who saw Hemsworth steal the show as the dim bulb receptionist Kevin in last summer’s “Ghostbusters” can attest to the actor’s hilarity. We can’t wait to see how he infuses that into Thor.

“Thor: Ragnarok” is due in theaters on November 3.

[via: Fandango]

February 20, 2017
Benedict Cumberbatch Interviews Pal Tom Hiddleston Like a Fanboy

“Thank you for being a friend, Benedict Cumberbatch,” Tom Hiddleston is saying, probably.

Cumberbatch quizzed his fellow British actor and longtime friend for “The Night Manager,” and filming his movie “Kong: Skull Island.”

One thing they did NOT talk about: Taylor Swift.

“There’s another weight of us being in the public eye, which is this presumption that, because your work and your promotion work is very public, your private life should be, too,” Cumberbatch said at one point.

“And, without getting into a huge debate, I just want to say that I’m not going to ask questions about my friend’s personal life just because there are unsolicited photographs of him and a certain someone, in a relationship or together. I’m not going to get into that. So that door is closed, dear reader.”

Hiddleston chuckled in response. No doubt he also send Cumberbatch a bottle of scotch as a thank you (and for his upcoming birthday). #FriendshipGoals

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