Tom Hiddleston pretty much owns the role of Loki; he was the best thing about the first Thor as a man whose emotional world comes apart, and the funniest thing about the second. Oh, and he was pretty good in The Avengers. But originally, he was aiming to be Thor.
In the upcoming Thor: The Dark World DVD, we’ll be able to see Hiddleston’s full screen test as the God of Thunder. The video appears to have already been yanked (although we’ll keep a lookout for it, but in the meantime, here are two GIFs that got pulled from it. And yes, he’s shirtless:
Obviously, if he’d gotten the role, he would have put on a lot more muscle, but Hiddleston’s so good as Loki it’s hard to imagine him as anyone else in the Marvel Universe. If you’re wondering how Hiddleston got the screen test in the first place, it was probably because he worked with Kenneth Branagh on Wallander, where he had, well, see for yourself:
Really, Tom, you lucked out. The black hair is a much better look.