Ever since the God of Mischief’s tragic demise in Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel fans have been trying to think of ways that Loki could return from the dead. If you ask Tom Hiddleston, though, he seems to think the character’s arc across the MCU is complete as he’s gone from a broken anti-hero to villain to finding redemption.
Hiddleston attended ACE Comic Con in Chicago this weekend and was asked by a fan during a Q&A if he thought Loki could ever be redeemed. The actor replied that, as far as he’s concerned, he already is. To explain what he meant, Hiddleston recapped how he thinks the character changes over his time in the franchise. Beginning with how “broken” he becomes in Thor.
“The thing is, he is redeemed. I found it very touching because Loki, as a character, has been so broken for so long. I think the center of him has been very fragile and very isolated after those traumatic events in the first film when he finds out that he was adopted. Not only was he adopted, but that his father had left him to die, so he has internalized that shame of being abandoned and being alone.”
In between movies, the dark emotions bubbling inside him, according to Hiddleston, transform Loki into the world-conquering villain we encounter in The Avengers. He still holds on to his “hatred and anger” throughout Thor: The Dark World as well, though.
“And all of that shame has turned into something harder and angrier, which is why he becomes the villain he becomes. He comes down to earth, he tries to subjugate it, he becomes a villain, in every sense of the word. He’s motivated by hatred and anger. Then he loses his mother and he’s still not self-aware, in that way.”
Finally, it’s the death of Odin and his father accepting him at the end that’s able to break through to the trickster god and make him stand alongside his long-suffering brother against their twisted sister Hela in Thor: Ragnarok, and again against Thanos in Infinity War.
“And it’s only losing his father, who calls him one of his sons–Odin includes him, he says, ‘Oh my sons,’ at the beginning of Ragnarok–and the chaos of another sibling, Hela, turning up and Thor and Loki have to join forces, and Thor really gets through to Loki in that that, so to have it all come full circle and for Loki call himself an Odinson, to really identify with that, to identify with the strength of his father’s love before saving his brother, I found really touching.”
That’s a perfect summation of Loki’s character arc over the MCU so far and when Hiddleston puts it like that, it does feel that maybe his journey’s complete. That said, we know that Marvel’s currently in the early stages of developing a mini-series for the character to arrive on the Disney streaming service at some point. Whether this will be set before IW or after Avengers 4, it’s too early to say, but it’s still nice to know that we’ll be seeing more of Loki post-Avengers: Infinity War.
