Marvel Studios’ latest streaming series,Loki, has already established itself as one of the wildest MCU projects to date. The trickster god’stimeline-altering work with the TVAhas made for some of Marvel’s most mind-bending storytelling, while Tom Hiddleston’s lead performance has reinvigorated fans’ appreciation for the actor’s range. Similarly, Owen Wilson’s performance opposite Hiddleston as his bureaucratic guardian, Agent Mobius, has renewed public interest in his work.
The range that Hiddleston has shown off inLokihas already been explored in a bunch of great underrated movies, while Wilson’s performance as Mobius evokes the deadpan dryness ofhis work in Wes Anderson’s movies. During the interminable week-long wait between episodes ofLoki, there are a few terrific Hiddleston and Wilson movies to take a look at.
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In 2013, Hiddleston teamed up with director Jim Jarmusch – the indie darling who helmed such acclaimed movies asStranger Than Paradise,Coffee and Cigarettes, andPaterson– forOnly Lovers Left Alive, a love story about two vampires whose strained relationship has endured several centuries. A delightfullyoffbeat take on the vampire genre,Only Lovers Left Aliveis anchored by Hiddleston’s incredible on-screen chemistry with co-star Tilda Swinton. Arriving at the height of theTwilightcraze, in many ways,Only Lovers Left Aliveis the anti-Twilight.
In 2015, Hiddleston teamed up with director Guillermo del Toro, whose ability to push social commentary through genre stories is unparalleled andwhoseHellboytrilogy still needs a finale, for the gothic horror gemCrimson Peak. Combining a Victorian-era love story with a classic ghost story, del Toro’s movie sees an aspiring author (Mia Wasikowska) moving out to a haunted mansion in the middle of nowhere with her new husband (Hiddleston) and his sister (Jessica Chastain). While Hiddleston is more of a supporting player here and Wasikowska steals the show, his smarmy take on the role of Thomas Sharpe recalls the mustache-twirling version of Loki circa the Battle of New York that anchors the Disney Plus series.
When Owen Wilson was initially cast as Loki’s sidekick in his solo series, some Marvel fans were skeptical. But those fans only knew Wilson from broad comedies likeStarsky & HutchandYou, Me, and Dupree. Wilson got his start working with revered auteur Wes Anderson. He has a writing credit on Anderson’s first three movies and has appeared in all but two of his films. His nuanced work in Anderson’s movies always gives viewers a renewed appreciation for the actor.
In Anderson’s directorial debutBottle Rocket, Wilson plays a wannabe criminal named Dignan who plans a heist, recruits his friends to pull it off, and then finds himself hopelessly unprepared for a life of crime when it all starts going horribly wrong. InThe Royal Tenenbaums, Wilson plays a western writer named Eli Cash, a friend of the titular family (and extramarital affair for one of them) who finds himself in the throes of a mescalin addiction.
Bill Murray stars inThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissouas the eponymous Jacques Cousteau-esque oceanographer, but Wilson provides strong support as a pilot from Kentucky who might be his estranged son. InThe Darjeeling Limited, Wilson plays the oldest of three brothers who invites the other two (Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) ona spiritual journey across Indiafollowing a near-death experience. All of these roles have shown depth that Wilson’s more mainstream movies likeDrillbit TaylorandHall Passhas failed to dig into.
Lokiisn’t the first time that Hiddleston and Wilson have collaborated. They previously co-starred in Woody Allen’s magical realist romcomMidnight in Paris, which established the duo’s screwball chemistry thatLokihas been having so much fun with. Wilson stars as Gil Pender, a nostalgic writer who visits Paris with his fiancée and finds that he has the ability to travel back in time to the 1920s if he waits in a specific spot in the city at midnight. Along the way, he meets such cultural icons as Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll; Salvador Dalí, played by Adrien Brody; and F. Scott Fitzgerald, played by none other than Tom Hiddleston.
Thecentral dynamic inLoki– Hiddleston as a larger-than-life icon and Wilson as an everyman in awe of him – seems like a direct callback to their scenes inMidnight in Paris. The difference is that, inMidnight in Paris, Wilson is the bewildered fish out of water and Hiddleston is the one introducing him to a magical world that seems mundane to him.
It’ll be interesting to see what the remaining episodes ofLokido withHiddleston and Wilson’s dynamic. Now that the God of Mischief has betrayed Mobius’ trust, their friendship will undoubtedly be on the rocks. In the meantime, check out some of the actors’ overlooked previous work.
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