In more confirmation that Tom Hiddleston commands an army of uniquely passionate followers on the Internet (confirmation that, for once, does not involve creepy fan fiction), a Change.org campaign aimed at getting the character Loki his own movie is nearing its goal of 20,000 signatures, a number that should at least force Marvel executives to say, “Oh, that’s nice,” before returning to plotting their multibillion-dollar franchises on their own.
As with the recent petitions calling for Ben Affleck to be preemptively fired from Batman and Alexis Bledel and Matt Bomer to be installed as the stars of Fifty Shades Of Grey, the “Free Loki” movement seeks to rally the army of fans of Tom Hiddleston’s Thor villain, in a show of support of a standalone film exploring his story. Also like those petitions, it will doubtless have little impact on the actions of a major movie studio, none of which have yet relented to the awesome moral authority of the Internet petition. (Perhaps because no one’s made a petition about it.)
But unlike those petitions, hey, at least “Free Loki” is positive, its sentiment echoing movements like “Free Mandela” in both its earnestness and its propagation by a bunch of ultimately powerless young people who could otherwise be doing drugs or playing hacky sack. In explaining its reasoning, the movement cites Loki’s “Best Villain” win at the most recent MTV Movie Awards as statistical proof that the character has his devoted followers (among the people who participate in this sort of web-based campaigning, at least), as signees chime in with additional arguments ranging from “Loki is a three-dimensional villain who has his own problems and who deserves a proper closure and bigger highlight on how his mind works” to “Because Loki is so fucking hot.”
In the meantime, Tom Hiddleston fans will just have to content themselves with Loki as a Thor: The Dark World supporting character—which, some might argue, is where not being obligated to undergo the redemptive arc of a standalone film is what enables him to be so interesting, and that forcing him to carry the lead in that way would actually be the opposite of “freeing” him. Still, let them have their moment. As we alluded to up top, this is definitely the least objectionable method of Tom Hiddleston fans contenting themselves.