Marvel fans couldn’t handle the thought of no more Loki following his death in Avengers: Infinity War, hence the endless stream of theories about how the God of Mischief was categorically not dead and would return in Avengers: Endgame. Sure enough, Loki did make a comeback, and not only that, but his death was erased from the timeline. Well, one timeline.
When Iron Man and Ant-Man botched their mission to steal the Tesseract from New York in 2012, Loki managed to escape with the Space Stone instead. Fans have taken this to mean that Thor’s trickster brother has, at least in this version of events, managed to avoid the fate that the original Loki faced in Infinity War.Â
While speaking with The Los Angeles Times, director Anthony Russo confirmed that this was indeed the case, saying:
“Loki could absolutely still be alive in an alternate timeline.”
We can infer, then, that in this alternate history of the MCU, the proper supervillain version of Loki from The Avengers never went on to redeem himself, partially in Thor: The Dark World and fully in Thor: Ragnarok, meaning he ultimately wouldn’t have died a hero at Thanos’ hand. The prime Loki still did die, of course, but if Marvel ever wants to do anything with the more amoral younger Loki, this gives them the option.
While there’s a big question mark over this, the good news is that Disney Plus’ Loki TV series is on the way. Though Tom Hiddleston is confirmed to appear in it, it’s been reported that the show will be a prequel, exploring the Asgardian’s exploits throughout history, with the British actor mostly on narration duties. It is a product of Marvel Studios, though, unlike previous Marvel TV series, so it’s definitely possible that it’ll tie into Avengers: Endgame somehow.
