Before fans could even load IMDB to find out who the hell this Chris Hemsworth is that landed the title role in Thor, Nikki Finke again has received word that director Kenneth Branagh has now cast another unknown actor in the role of Loki: Tom Hiddleston. The London actor is actually listed on IMDB as rumored to be playing Thor, which means he was probably seen having lunch with Branagh at some point recently. Apparently whomever saw the two together, forgot that there would also be other roles to be filled. Fancy that.

Hiddleston really hasn’t done anything in the U.S., with his most notable appearance being an HBO mini-series called The Gathering Storm in the role of Winston Churchill’s son. The winning connection here is that he has also appeared in the London stage production of Ivanov alongside Mr. Branagh. What better way to audition than to perform with a director before you know he’s going to direct a movie that technically doesn’t exist yet?

The thing to keep in mind here before you run around screaming at this odd display of unknown casting for a major superhero movie is: Thor and friends are usually speaking in the Old English tongue. This is why they went and got Kenneth Branagh to direct the movie, and this is why the cast is so far relatively invisible. Josh Hartnett was recently rumored to be up for the role of Loki as well, but can you see him spitting out some Ol’ English dialogue? That would be interesting.

Thor will be released on May 20, 2011.