Following his death by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, Loki’s legion of fans just wouldn’t believe he was really dead and came up with a myriad of theories about how the God of Mischief might be resurrected in Avengers: Endgame. Of course, Tom Hiddleston’s trickster did indeed get a new chance at life in Endgame thanks to the use of time travel.
During Iron Man and Ant-Man’s mission to retrieve the Tesseract from shortly after the events of The Avengers, the plan hits a hiccup and Loki manages to snatch the Space Stone and flee, never to be seen again in the movie. But what does this mean for the future of the character? Is he alive in the prime timeline or elsewhere in the multiverse?
While speaking to Business Insider, co-director Joe Russo explained that it’s definitely the latter. Going by the rules of time travel established by Hulk and the Ancient One in the film, Loki’s escape is so big it would create a new timeline.
“Loki, when he teleports away with the (Space) Stone, would create his own timeline. It gets very complicated, but it would be impossible for (Cap) to rectify the timeline unless he found Loki. The minute that Loki does something as dramatic as take the Space Stone, he creates a branched reality.”
This isn’t quite the same Loki that we know, however. This is 2012 Loki, fresh from his attempt at enslaving Earth for Thanos. If he fled from his punishment in this revised timeline, that means he never underwent the redemption that led to his noble self-sacrifice in IW. So if he did return, he’d probably be more of a fully-fledged villain again.
While we work out where the God of Mischief fits in the post–Avengers: Endgame MCU, we do know that he’s returning for Disney Plus’ Loki TV series, with Hiddleston reprising his role. This is expected to be a prequel, with the actor mostly filling a voiceover part. Nevertheless you can expect it to arrive sometime in 2020.
