Star Wars star Richard E. Grant jokes that Disney would have removed his kneecaps if he revealed spoilers. Grant's most recent role for Disney came in Loki, in which he plays one of several variants of Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief trapped in the Void. Though Marvel tried their best to keep the high-profile actor’s role a secret, Grant was rumored to appear as a variant of Loki in the Disney+ series before it aired.
A post-credits scene at the end of episode 4, “The Nexus Event” revealed that to be the case. Episode 5, “Journey into Mystery,” unveiled Grant’s Classic Loki in full as a variant of the character who survives his encounter with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. The end of the episode sees Old Loki heroically sacrifice himself by conjuring a grand illusion of Asgard to distract Alioth, allowing Loki and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) time to enchant the cloud-like creature. Although, Loki was not Grant’s first experience with Disney’s intense secrecy, as he appeared as the villainous General Pryde in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
In an interview with Paul’s Trip to the Movies (via Comicbook) promoting his most recent role in Loki, the Oscar-nominated actor touched on another role of his in a high-profile Disney production which prepared for him for the intense secrecy of the Marvel show. When discussing what that experience was like, Grant joked that Disney would have removed his kneecaps if he revealed spoilers about the final film in the Skywalker saga:
I was in the final Star Wars … having to keep a secret like that was so torturous, but it was balanced by the fact that I knew that my kneecaps would probably be removed by Disney if I did reveal anything about Star Wars or I'd be cut out of the movie. So that kept me very, very quiet. I'd had a dress rehearsal for that, so when it came to Loki, I thought, “Oh, I know about this.”
While Grant is clearly joking about Disney removing his kneecaps, the Mouse House does take secrecy very seriously across all its projects, both Star Wars and Marvel. By not allowing leaks of any kind, Disney ensures its surprises remain unspoiled, which Loki was full of from Sylvie being revealed as the evil Loki variant to He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) being revealed as the surprise villain pulling the strings. To pull off these types of surprise twists, Marvel must maintain strict secrecy during development and production onset, which Grant likens to what he experienced on Rise of Skywalker, joking that he was “threatened with Asgard-like demolition” if he revealed anything about the Marvel show.
While a few MCU stars, most famously Tom Holland, have struggled with maintaining this level of secrecy in the past (which Marvel has seemingly embraced and made a part of their actual marketing scheme), Grant was wholly prepared for it due to his brief tenure as General Pryde. While Marvel’s intense secrecy is usually the focus, Disney also institutes similar policies for its Star Wars projects, namely the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, which went through great lengths to keep Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker a secret in the leadup to the season 2 finale. It was this kind of secrecy practiced on the Star Wars side of things that prepared Grant for Loki.
Source: Paul’s Trip to the Movies (via Comicbook)
