THOR 2 (Loki's Future, Director Out)

• THOR 2

One of the big breakouts this year, is Tom Hiddleston’sportrayal of Loki in Marvel Studios' Thor and he'll be returning next summer asthe villain of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers.

Loki Concept Art

At the press junket for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse,SuperHeroHype got to talk to Hiddleston about the role that kicked off anamazing year and has made him somewhat of a household name atleast to all comicbook fans.

"The whole Loki thing is just so exciting," hetold us. "It is quite surreal, because I never expected it to be sofervent, for the passion to be so intense and one always hopes one's work isgoing to be appreciated, but my God it's a compliment that people haveresponded to what I did and everybody who’s written letters say such lovelythings like 'I really understood what Loki was going through and I understoodhis emotional predicament' so it’s pretty great."

"It's nice to come back, like an old friend," hesaid about his return for The Avengers. "When I came back to do'Avengers,' I'd gone off and done F. Scott Fitzgerald and Captain Nicholls andFreddie Page in the 'Deep Blue Sea' and when I came back to Loki I was like,'Hey, man, how’s it going?'"

The question on most minds is whether we’ll see Loki in Thor2 - as if you could keep him away. It certainly sounds like Loki won’t be dyingin The Avengers, so Hiddleston will have a chance to work with director PattyJenkins and he shared his thoughts on what he feels she’ll bring to the table:

Tom Hiddleston as Loki on set of Avengers

"I had dinner with some of the executives at Marvel andChris Hemsworth and Patty in London and she's amazing, really. She's the mostincredibly fearless director and has a really inate understanding of themuscularity of a character like Thor. I'm not just saying he's jacked-up. Imean, the character itself has an enormously muscular, visceral, emotionalcomplexity and Patty understands it, and she understands it in her bones."

While since that interview with Tom, Deadline now reportsthat Patty Jenkins has departed Thor 2. The search is now on for a replacement.

Patty Jenkins previously directed Monster starring CharlizeTheron, who won an Academy Award for her performance in the film. Jenkins, whoreceived an Emmy nomination for directing the pilot of AMC's acclaimed series"The Killing," has also directed episodes of "Entourage"and "Arrested Development."

The original article cites "creative differences"as the reason for Jenkins' departure, suggesting that the split is amicable andthat she might return for a superhero non-sequel in the near future.

With a release date planned for November 15th, 2013, a newdirector is expected to be announced soon.