Marvel Studios' smash-hit Loki series has brought a lot to the MCU. It saw the return of Tom Hiddleston's fan-favorite Asgardian trickster with a twist and also established the world of the Time Variance Authority, an organization charged with policing the timeline and wiping out any perceived impurities that may occur in history.
The Time Variance Authority, or TVA, is a bureaucratic operation with a distinct hierarchy with soldiers called Minutemen, who are commanded by Hunters. Sasha Lane, who starred in three episodes of Loki played a somewhat small but ultimately crucial role in the time-traveling MCU romp.
Hunter C-20, as portrayed by Lane, was hot on the trail of a Loki Variant, a woman named Sylvie who is adept at mind control. C-20 ended up confronting Sylvie but the Asgardian peered into her mind, unlocking a buried memory of the Hunter's life before the TVA. This act eventually led to the realization by Loki and Owen Wilson's Mobius that the TVA was abducting timeline variants from across history, brainwashing them, and putting them to work in their employ.
Lane's character was only in the series for three episodes in total, but ended up having a lasting impact. But as it turns out, the actress could have had a part in another of Marvel Studios' many franchises.
C-20 Actress Sasha Lane Auditioned for Separate MCU Character
In an interview with Collider, Loki star, Sasha Lane revealed that she once was up for a part in another MCU movie which was very likely Tom Holland's first solo outing, Spider-Man: Homecoming. She ended up losing out on the part since, in her own words, she was not "Marvel ready."
“I forgot what I was auditioning for. I think it was Spider-Man, to be honest. And this was a long, long time ago and I was not audition ready, and especially not Marvel ready, you know? I’m more of like, the eyes and the subtleties, and Marvel is the opposite of that. And I remember just being in that room and they were like, ‘Oh, could you just [do that with] more energy? More energy, more up and more vocal.’ Yeah, no. That wasn’t me. I knew right away. I was like, yeah, that was a cute little experience, but not for me.”
When Loki came around, the actress revealed that she actually "didn't audition" for the role:
“But you know what was great was I had just given birth a couple months before I got the opportunity. I was out shooting a music video I think in New York and I got the call about it, and I ended up talking to Kate [Herron], the director, and she was telling me a little bit about the universe and what she wanted to do with it, and it felt like this kind of underground version of Marvel, which I was like, ‘Alright, if I can be in something like this then this is more where I fit in. This is how I can jump into this world.’"
Lane was initially a bit taken aback by Herron's interest in her talents for the role in Loki:
"And the fact that she wanted me in the first place and it meant a lot to her got me excited. And I just started auditioning again and there was just something in me that was like, ‘You know what? Okay! I just had a kid, I want to get back into it. What a cool way to go about it.’ I was just honored at that point. I was like, ‘Me? You really want me? Okay!’ Which I guess was a huge leap from sitting in that audition room just like, ‘Sorry, I don’t know what I’m doing here.’”
From missing Spider-Man to getting Loki
So, all's well that ends well for Sasha Lane. Even though she lost out on one Marvel role, another door in the MCU opened for her. The up-and-coming actress surely has a bright acting career ahead of her, currently appearing in Hulu's Conversations with Friends with many more projects likely on the horizon.
It's interesting to speculate exactly which character in Spider-Man: Homecoming that Lane had auditioned for. Given her age at the time, it doesn't take much of a leap of logic to guess that she was up for the role of one of Peter Parker's classmates. While Peter's school chums had an assortment of somewhat memorable lines and scenes in Homecoming, they largely kind of blended together as a group. So perhaps it was a better use of Lane's abilities in the more sizable role of Loki's Hunter C-20.
The second season of Marvel Studios' Loki is slated to begin production in June but it does not have a release date attached to it yet.
