The True Story Behind Loki's Knife Flip Trick

For the last decade, Tom Hiddleston's Loki has beaten the odds by somehow managing to be a guy who's constantly showing off his knives to people, while at the same time seeming like he'd be fun to hang out with. Normally, those two traits are mutually exclusive. For receipts, travel to the bus station of your choosing and strike up a conversation with a stranger.

In recent years, the god of mischief has gotten even showier about his enthusiasm for daggers. Starting in 2017, Loki began flipping his cutlery around with the gumption of an Asgardian Benihana chef. Some people can still remember exactly where they were the first time they saw Hiddleston flip those knives in slow motion during the trailer for "Thor: Ragnarok." It's usually a movie theater.

And in a recent interview with EW, Hiddleston revealed the inspiration for Loki's now-iconic dagger flourish. Flying in the face of millions of dollars of MCU movie magic, careful choreography, and meticulous timing, it turns out that the whole thing came about by accident when the actor didn't have anything to do for a second.

It all started with "Thor: Ragnarok" and its climactic fight on the Bifrost Bridge. "... We were doing that run, it was an afternoon, and it was myself and Idris and maybe Taika. I can't remember. Definitely Idris was there, and it was a two-shot of us fighting these fantastic athletes that are the stunt guys," Tom Hiddleston told EW. "And I ran out of choreography. Basically, I think I finished my moves before Idris, and he was still rolling, and I didn't want to just be standing there like a lemon, not doing anything interesting. So I just flipped the knives, and caught them by chance."

Displaying an uncharacteristically humble attitude for a guy that wears as many gold hats as he does, Hiddleston went on to state that stuff-flippery isn't part of his usual bag of tricks, and that he was as surprised as anyone that the maneuver worked out. "I've since tried to do it. Every time I try to do it with wooden spoons, it never works, and I always drop one. So it was one of those things, but lightning never strikes twice." Hear that, kids? Trying to throw cutlery and catch it is the sort of thing that even Loki can't confidently pull off every time. Leave your parents' knife drawer alone and go read a book.