Loki: Tom Hiddleston says Marvel role 'changed my life'

Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier - and now Loki.

Marvel has brought the heroes and villains of its comics to the small screen in 2021, and Tom Hiddleston's Loki is perhaps the most mischievous of them all.

He tells Radio 1 Newsbeat that landing the role in 2011 "changed his life".

"I feel a huge responsibility in honouring the affection in which Loki is held by the audience," he said at the London premiere.

"I absolutely love playing him. He is such a fun, complex character."

As with most Marvel projects, Tom says everyone involved in the new TV series, on Disney+, has had to keep their "mouths tightly closed" to avoid dropping any spoilers - something he's "terrified" of doing.

"It's best just to swallow the news and the truth and never speak of it until it's time," he says.

"The Marvel movies mean so much to so many people and the characters mean so much to so many people.

"I think they enjoy being surprised."

Loki was confirmed as gender fluid in a recent promotional clip.

But it wasn't a huge surprise to fans who have done their reading - it was confirmed in the comics back in 2014.

"Loki has always been fluid - someone who crosses boundaries and is unpredictable and mercurial," Tom says.

"I was really pleased we got to touch on that in this series.

"It's an amazing privilege to get to explore who he is in different ways."

Like many movies and TV series, filming for the Disney+ series was stopped for five months due to the pandemic.

"There were many people behind the scenes who spent a great part of those months trying to create an environment which was safe, in which we could all return to work and finish this thing we started," Tom says, adding that it's been an "enormously difficult year" for the industry.

Tom's career started in the theatre and he says he wouldn't have reached Hollywood without it.

"My heart goes out to everybody who works in the theatre and in the cinema," he says.

"My great hope is that it will be back - with even more celebration and positivity. I can't wait."