Tom Hiddleston Auditioned For Thor With An American Accent

Tom Hiddleston originally auditioned to play Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Loki Making Of documentary reveals he did so with an American accent. The MCU began its journey in 2008 with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man, which set the tone for the subsequent movies in Phase 1 and paved the way for the rest of the heroes that would lead this connected universe. Phase 1 was the introduction of the original Avengers, and in 2011, viewers met Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. The God of Thunder went on to lead his own solo movies and joined the Avengers on many adventures, while Loki had a separate journey fluctuating between antagonist and ally.

Loki was the main antagonist in the first Avengers movie and returned in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, and met his fate at the hands of Thanos in the first act of Avengers: Infinity War. Hiddleston won the audience over with his performance as Loki, and luckily for fans, the time heist in Avengers: Endgame allowed the 2012 version of Loki to escape, making way for his return in his own TV show. Loki reunited viewers with the God of Mischief as he was brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA) after his escape messed with the Sacred Timeline, and he was briefly recruited to catch another Loki variant (Sylvie, played by Sophia Di Martino). Both Lokis ended up teaming up to uncover the truth about the TVA, and while they got what they wanted, they also made way for the multiverse of madness by killing He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the one responsible for the creation of the TVA.

While fans wait for the next MCU project, Disney+ released a documentary showing the "making of" of Loki, as it also did with WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and it revealed a couple of secrets not only of the show but of Hiddleston’s process to join the MCU as well. The documentary begins with an introduction narrated by Hiddleston about time and how long it took to film Loki, and then it jumps into how he joined this extensive universe. Hiddleston shared that he originally auditioned to play Thor, with a couple of shots of the audition shown on screen, and while parts of it had already been released online years ago, these new bits showed that he chose to go with an American accent to pursue the role of the God of Thunder.

Tom Hiddleston is not the first nor the only actor in the MCU who isn’t American, and while some have had to use an American accent for their roles (most notably Tom Holland as Peter Parker), that hasn’t been the case with the Asgardians and those from other realms. Chris Hemsworth has kept his Australian accent throughout his whole run as Thor, Anthony Hopkins kept his accent when he played Odin, and Rene Russo used her American accent when she played Frigga. It seems odd, then, that Hiddleston chose to use an American accent when auditioning for Thor, though it's also somewhat understandable. At the time when Thor was in pre-production, the only two MCU movies that had been released were Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, so Hiddleston (and many others) might have been under the impression that Marvel was going for a more “neutral” accent in its movies despite the unusual origin of some characters, as are Thor and Loki. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and Hemsworth and Hiddleston have used their natural accents while playing the siblings-turned-enemies-turned-allies.

As strange as Tom Hiddleston’s American accent in his audition to play Thor was, it wasn’t an obstacle for him to join the MCU as the casting crew took notice of his talent and realized he was better off as the God of Mischief. Hiddleston’s time as Loki isn’t over, as he will return in season 2 of Loki and will surely have a place in other projects after what he and Sylvie did at the end of season 1.

Next: Loki's MCU Future: Everything We Know About Hiddleston In Phase 4