Tom Hiddleston says he improvised Loki's signature knife flip because he ran out of choreography while filming 'Thor: Ragnarok'

• Tom Hiddleston told Entertainment Weekly he improvised a knife flip on the set of "Thor: Ragnarok."
• He came up with the action because he ran out of choreography and didn't want to stand idle.
• The move didn't make the cut of the movie, but did appear in the film's teaser trailer.

Tom Hiddleston said that Loki's signature knife flip in 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok" was the result of improvisation on the set.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 40-year-old Marvel actor recalled filming the movie's final battle sequence that took place on Asgard's Bifrost Bridge, to the tune of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."

Hiddleston said that as costars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Cate Blanchett (Hela) were filming their fight sequences, he was working with Idris Elba (Heimdall), director and Korg actor Taika Waititi, and the stunt department.

"We were doing that run, it was an afternoon, and it was myself and Idris and maybe Taika. I can't remember," Hiddleston recalled. "Definitely Idris was there, and it was a two-shot of us fighting these fantastic athletes that are the stunt guys."

The "Loki" actor said that he "ran out of choreography," so he felt compelled to think of a move that would keep him active.

"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," Hiddleston said. "So I just flipped the knives, and caught them by chance."

The aforementioned move was featured in slow-motion in a teaser trailer for 'Thor: Ragnarok," but ultimately didn't make the cut of the final film. Instead, there was a slow-motion moment in which he effortlessly flipped his gold helmet after using it as a weapon against Hela's army.

Hiddleston did, however, get to bring back the knife flip for his standalone Disney+ series.

During the third episode of the series, he grabbed two daggers from a locker and flipped them in front of a Loki variant named Sylvie (Sophia di Martino).

The actor also told EW that it's not easy to flip the knives.

"Every time I try to do it with wooden spoons, it never works, and I always drop one," he said. "So it was one of those things, but lightning never strikes twice."