Everyone knows Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the trickster god who has served as both friend and foe over the past decade of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Hiddleston was actually up for the role of Thor initially. It seems odd looking back on it, as both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston proved to be the perfect fit for their characters, but when casting was underway for THOR, Hiddleston was one of the many actors who auditioned for the title role.
The actor recently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and spoke of the audition process for THOR. "I auditioned for the first Thor film ten years ago in 2009," Hiddleston explained. "I just thought I was auditioning for a movie. An interesting part in an interesting movie… They were looking for some less well-established actors, so that the audience didn't have an association, they just wanted people to see these new characters, these new actors." Hiddleston added that if you were "over six foot and you’ve got blond hair, you can come and have a pop at it." The audition process took three months, but Marvel ultimately chose to go with Chris Hemsworth; however, due to the strength of his Thor audition, Hiddleston said that he won the role of Loki without having to audition for the character. Jimmy Fallon then played a brief clip from Hiddleston's original Thor audition tape, to which Hiddleston could only respond, "I think we can all agree that they cast the right actor." You can catch that moment at 2:11 in the video above.
Tom Hiddleston has played Loki in many MCU films, and thanks to the events of AVENGERS: ENDGAME, he'll soon be taking center stage in his very own Disney+ series. Production on Loki will kick off next year, but the the six-episode series isn't expected to debut until spring 2021.