Gugu Mbatha-Raw Joins LOKI For Adventures In Streaming

Tom Hiddleston now has one more fellow cast member on his upcoming Loki series, bringing Loki’s total friend count to three.

According to Variety, Gugu Mbatha-Raw has been cast in the Disney+ show, playing a role likely to remain undisclosed for a while. Mbatha-Raw has been working for some years now, showing up in supporting roles in all kinds of places (like Jupiter Ascending, pictured above), as well as in larger roles in Beyond The Lights, Black Mirror’s all-timer “San Junipero” episode, Motherless Brooklyn, and most recently The Morning Show on Apple TV+.

Aside from Mbatha-Raw and Hiddleston, Loki is set to star Owen Wilson also in an undisclosed role, and Sophia Di Martino (of the apparently rather-good British black-comedy series Flowers) playing what could be, says Deadline, a female interpretation of Loki. (Then again: given that he's a shapeshifter, literally any of these people could be playing Loki.) Sex Education’s Kate Herron is directing from scripts by Michael Waldron (of the upcoming Doctor Strange sequel and the private-toilet episode of Rick & Morty). It's going to have enormous amounts of money thrown at it. If you're reading this article, you will probably watch it.

As for what the show will look like: who knows! Marvel’s recent glimpse at its near-future streaming slate didn’t yield much information. The Hollywood Reporter’s sources say the show will involve Loki “[popping] up throughout human history as an unlikely influencer on historical events,” a sort of amoral Doctor Who concept that could prove fruitful. At any rate, as of the end of Avengers: Endgame, Loki is in possession of a certain Tesseract, so he’s certain to wreak all kinds of mischief on his very own show. 

All going according to plan - and Disney is known for enforcing its plans - Loki will air on Disney+ sometime in 2021.