If there is one thing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe we 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.
Starting out as a thorn in Odin’s side for 2011’s Thor, Loki emerged as an unlikely villain of The Avengers and earned his own redemption arc across the likes of Thor: Ragnarok. By the time we got to his tragic demise in Avengers: Infinity War, we weren’t ready to say goodbye to the reformed God of Mischief. Thankfully, we didn’t have to, with the Loki solo series giving him an even grander adventure.
Loki’s increased importance is a double-edged sword because some feel it robs Infinity War of some of its stakes. However, if not for Loki’s heroic sacrifice, we wouldn’t have Endgame’s time heist, 2012 Loki stealing the Tesseract, or any of the Loki series. While Chris Hemsworth’s future as Thor remains up in the air after director Taika Waititi said he won’t return for a mythical Thor 5, Loki is in a more promising (albeit lonely) place.
Planting the seeds
For those who’ve been keeping up with Loki the man and Loki the series, the cliffhanger ending of season 1 leaned into the madness of the Multiverse Saga to cue Kang the Conqueror as the MCU’s next big bad. Even though we’ve been strung along with multiverse teases in everything from Spider-Man: No Way Home to The Marvels, Loki showed its potential and what its possible destruction could mean.
Loki season 2 then 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 the comic book God of Stories and 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?
Some clocked how 2011’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger both referenced the World’s Tree, with the latter hiding the Tesseract behind a carving of Yggdrasil. Whether you believe this was planned over a decade in advance or was simply a happy coincidence, there’s something poetic in the notion that the Asgardians put the Tesseract there, and it's the Space Stone that brings Loki to his place as the God of Stories. We also see Loki’s line from The Avengers of being “burdened with a glorious purpose” in a new light.
Even if Loki’s future is currently shrouded in mystery, the show’s writer Eric Martin pumped the brakes on season 3 telling CinemaBlend how 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.
To infinity and Beyonder
Before we start fan-casting Keanu Reeves as the Beyonder or go with the theory Ke Huy Quan's OB could be him, there’s speculation that Loki could take over as the cosmic being in upcoming movies Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: 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.
Others think that those movies will stick closer to the Beyonder from 1984's Secret Wars comic, while also taking elements of the 2015 miniseries that stitched together the multiverse as Battleworld. Thankfully, there’s still a place for Loki here. Despite Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ helmer Destin Daniel Cretton stepping away from directorial duties, Loki creator Michael Waldron just so happens to be writing those two films.
Another theory is that Loki will become Avenger Prime to lead a multiversal army of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes against Kang, Doctor Doom, the Beyonder, or whoever is the next Thanos. Adapting 2021’s Avengers: Forever comic could also bring back a number of fan-favorites. Before Cretton exited, Marvel insider MyTimeToShineHello claimed Secret Wars will see the return of the likes of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine to fight Kang across the multiverse.
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 of What If…? season 1, picture the scene where Loki brings them together as Avenger Prime.
God of Mischief to God of Stories
Either way, it’s more a case of when, not if, Loki returns. Hiddleston says it would be “unwise” to count 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. When Jimmy Fallon asked 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.
As for what else Loki can do, there's the ability to write Kang the Conqueror out of the MCU if the Jonathan Majors trial continues. While no upcoming projects have Hiddleston on their current cast lists, Owen Wilson and Tara Strong are tipped to reprise their roles as Mobius and Miss Minutes for 2024’s Deadpool 3. Loki being stuck holding the multiverse together makes his appearance less likely, but we’d at least expect a mention from his former co-workers.
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 the upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows that will soon be coming your way.
