How Loki went from the God of Mischief to the MCU’s MVP
Dec. 16, 2023OPINION | Loki finally, and deservedly, got the throne he had long been searching for
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If there is one thing about theMarvel Cinematic Universewe can all agree on, it’s that it’s great at casting its cavalcade of characters. From Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark to Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova to Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, the superhero powerhouse continues to nail its casting. However, among Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Josh Brolin (Thanos), and Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), few are as beloved as Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.
Planting the seeds
For those who’ve been keeping up with Loki the man and Loki the series, thecliffhanger ending of season 1leaned into the madness of the Multiverse Saga to cueKang the Conqueroras the MCU’s next big bad. Even though we’ve been strung along with multiverse teases in everything fromSpider-Man: No Way HometoThe Marvels, Loki showed its potential and what its possible destruction could mean.
Loki season 2then raised the stakes and as time ran out for Loki, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), Mobius (Owen Wilson), and all of the multiverse, our mischievous god quite literally took his place at the center of the MCU. Becoming a hybrid of thecomic book God of Storiesand a physical representation of Norse mythology’s Yggdrasil, a.k.a. the World’s Tree, the finale inadvertently made Loki the MCU’s MVP by promoting him to the overlord of the multiverse.
It’s a typical MCU twist on the Loki: Agent of Asgard comics. Here Loki found himself outside of the multiverse but able to rewrite history to preserve the stories of those who’d been lost. Although he isn’t directly referred to as the God of Stories (yet), episode 5 gave it the nod when Loki said “I can rewrite the story”. The MCU is known for planning ahead, but was the Loki season 2 finale really teased 12 years ago?
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Even if Loki’s future is currently shrouded in mystery, the show’s writer Eric Martin pumped the brakes on season 3 tellingCinemaBlendhow seasons 1 and 2 felt like “two halves of a book”. It would be easy to leave Loki marooned on his throne at the end of time, but something tells us this won’t be the case.
Before we start fan-casting Keanu Reeves as the Beyonder or go with the theoryKe Huy Quan’s OB could be him, there’s speculation that Loki could take over as the cosmic being in upcoming moviesAvengers: The Kang DynastyandAvengers: Secret Wars. The MCU is known for running fast and loose with the source material, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Loki becomes a composite replacement for the Beyonder.
We’ll take the rumors with a pinch of salt, but it would be a clever echo of Infinity War and Endgame to have our regular heroes bested at the end of The Kang Dynasty, then have classic characters take the lead to save the day in Secret Wars. Similar to Jeffrey Wright’s The Watcher uniting his own team at the end ofWhat If…?season 1, picture the scene where Loki brings them together as Avenger Prime.
Either way, it’s more a case of when, not if, Loki returns. Hiddleston says it would be “unwise” tocount Loki out just yet, explaining how he’s already said goodbye to the character twice before. Remembering how this Loki and Thor still haven’t met, the star even gave his own pitch for a heartfelt reunion between the new God of Stories and the God of Thunder.
It turns out that Hiddleston is full of ideas for Loki’s role at the center of the MCU. WhenJimmy Fallonasked whether Loki’s new time-slipping abilities could see him go into the past to visit someone like Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man, Hiddleston explained that “time-slipping technically gives Loki some interesting moves he can make,” also suggesting he could cross paths with Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff. These would be two prime candidates for Multiversal Avengers in the next ensemble.
The multiverse is a big old place, and just like how we’ve seen a whole colosseum of Kang variants out there, there are plenty of ways to get Hiddleston back into those green and gold garments. Even if (for some bizarre reason) Hiddleston didn’t return as Loki, the character is quite literally the MVP of the MCU, sitting at its center and holding the whole multiverse together. Not bad for the abandoned son of a Frost Giant, who has finally got that throne he was always craving.
For more from the MCU, here’s our guide to theupcoming Marvel moviesand TV shows that will soon be coming your way.
Tom Chapman is a hero and horror-loving writer from Manchester, with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Leeds University. He has over eight years of experience writing about all things movies, TV, and video games, even having a stint writing about Game of Thrones in Germany. Tom’s bylines include Digital Spy, Den of Geek, GGRecon, IGN, Radio Times, Yahoo!, and more. With a love of all things Westeros and WandaVision, Tom has (almost) done it all. When not practising his Billy Butcher impression or diving into the latest Chuck Palahniuk book, you’ll find Tom conjuring up his dream cast for a Scream movie.
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