Tom Hiddleston's Loki is one of the high-points of Joss Whedon's Avengers. The 'puny God' scene is arguably the film's best moment. Those are just facts.
And it turns out Tom knew that would be the case from the moment he picked up Whedon's script.
In fact, he got so excited he penned a gushing email to the writer / director as soon as he finished it, and you can read it below.
Joss,
"I am so excited I can hardly speak.
"The first time I read it I grabbed at it like Charlie Bucket snatching for a golden ticket somewhere behind the chocolate in the wrapper of a Wonka Bar. I didn't know where to start. Like a classic actor I jumped in looking for LOKI on every page, jumping back and forth, reading words in no particular order, utterances imprinting themselves like flash-cuts of newspaper headlines in my mind: 'real menace'; 'field of obeisance'; 'discontented, nothing is enough'; 'his smile is nothing but a glimpse of his skull'; 'Puny god' ...
"... Thank you for writing me my Hans Gruber. But a Hans Gruber with super-magic powers. As played by James Mason ... It's high operatic villainy alongside detached throwaway tongue-in-cheek; plus the 'real menace' and his closely guarded suitcase of pain. It's grand and epic and majestic and poetic and lyrical and wicked and rich and badass and might possibly be the most gloriously fun part I've ever stared down the barrel of playing. It is just so juicy.
"I love how throughout you continue to put Loki on some kind of pedestal of regal magnificence and then consistently tear him down. He gets battered, punched, blasted, side-swiped, roared at, sent tumbling on his back, and every time he gets back up smiling, wickedly, never for a second losing his eloquence, style, wit, self-aggrandisement or grandeur, and you never send him up or deny him his real intelligence.... That he loves to make an entrance; that he has a taste for the grand gesture, the big speech, the spectacle. I might be biased, but I do feel as though you have written me the coolest part.
"... But really I'm just sending you a transatlantic shout-out and fist-bump, things that traditionally British actors probably don't do. It's epic."
It's cool that Tom is much of a fan as the rest of us, isn't it? And we have a feeling Loki will be first in line when Age Of Ultron is unleashed next year. We desperately hope it includes a cameo from Mr Hidds.
