Anticipating “Loki”: Will Richard E. Grant Finally Appear?
Ever since “Loki” premiered three weeks ago, everyone has been fixated on figuring out who the hooded “Lady Loki” is. Now since that has been (mostly) answered, we can move on to the next elephant in the room.
If you pull up the cast list and move all the way to the bottom you will find Academy Award-nominated actor, Richard E. Grant with no character name associated with him. Who for the love of Odin could he be playing?
The Legit Loki Resemblance
If he looks familiar you may remember him as the loyal but evil, Allegiant General Enric Pryde in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Recently, Grant gained critical acclaim in 2018’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
With just three episodes remaining, his “Loki” character remains a mystery. Grant is no stranger to the spoiler protocol that Disney and Marvel use; however, he may have given a clue with a tweet made after he was cast in late 2020. The tweet shows a side by side between him and “Loki” star Tom Hiddleston.
@twhiddleston and I have talked about working together for some years and finally get to do so in LOKI pic.twitter.com/Ccft4GZgYg
— Richard E. Grant (@RichardEGrant) September 25, 2020
The actor appears to be deliberately matching his face and expression with the actor inviting theories that both actors are playing the same role.
More specifically, Grant may be playing “Old Man Loki.” The Old Man variant of characters has a rich history in Marvel comics with heroes like Hawkeye and Wolverine taking center stage. Old Man Logan (Wolverine) was portrayed in the 20th Century Fox film “Logan,” which ironically included Grant in the cast as well.
Based on MCU canon, Hiddleston’s Loki is around 1,000 years old. Using Grant and Hiddleston’s age as comparison, we can assume that Old Man Loki would be around 2,500 years old. What has this Loki variant been up to for the extra fifteen-hundred years? Given what Loki has achieved in the MCU in just the last ten, it can be assumed that a more seasoned God of Mischief could have conquered even more in his lifetime.
Did Loki Create the TVA?
Taking this into account along with the fact that they casted a very prominent actor, there is little chance that Grant’s appearance will be a simple cameo. The primary theory is that Old Man Loki is actually the one ruling the TVA. In the second episode, Agent Mobius showed that they pruned many Loki’s in the past. In addition, Ravonna indicated that “the timekeepers are monitoring every aspect of this case.”
Even the events of “Avengers: Infinity War” on the sacred timeline saw the end of a Loki. It’s safe to say that removing variant Lokis is very important to the TVA due to Old Man Loki’s fear that other Loki’s could threaten his power. Thus, his control over the TVA is tasked specifically with removing threats to his Lokiness.
Finally, the TVA is an oddly human-only club despite it’s galactic grasp. The first “Avengers” movie taught us that Loki wants to rule Midgard (Earth) as a way to embarrass his brother, Thor. Enslaving Earthlings to be paper pushers in a bureaucratic time-keeping force indirectly achieves that goal.
Richard’s IMDB profile states he will be in the final three episodes in some capacity. This gives us just the next three weeks until a presumed epic “Battle of the Lokis” occurs to close out the season.
Feature Image Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel