Warning: There will be spoilers for the Loki season 2 finale in this article.
The second season of Marvel’s Loki is finally over, and Tom Hiddleston kept us hooked as the titular, wily god of mischief. As a god, it’s expected that Loki, just like Thor and Odin, is immortal. However, MCU fans have long debated on how old Loki is.
Now that Loki has put another adventure under his belt, a question that has been circling among fans is just how old the mischievous god is. Evidently, he’s older than the bulk of the faces we’ve seen in the MCU, as he’s not a mere mortal, nor is he an amplified mutant that ages. However, his exact age remains a mystery to most (which is understandable considering his flawless skin). With his various time jumps and skips, viewers have been introduced to multiple versions of the character across space and time. Even when he’s out on a rampage, it’s hard not to enjoy his childlike mischief. Nonetheless, to find out how old Loki is, we’ll have to break down his age across all his appearances in the MCU.
Loki’s MCU beginnings (The Thor movies)
In the first installment of the Thor movies, we are introduced to the character, Loki. This is also where we find out that he is not a native Asgardian, but the abandoned son of the Frost Giant Laufey. He was adopted by Odin in the year 965AD, and was born around that time. Using that year, we can surmise that Loki was about 1,046 years old in the first Thor movie.
After he failed to kill his brother, Loki was given the Mind Stone by Thanos, and sent to retrieve the stones that reside on Earth. Since the first Avengers movie takes place a year after Thor, we know that Loki was about 1,047 years old by that time. With another year passed, and another plan foiled, Loki decides to join the good guys in Thor: The Dark World. At 1,048 years old, perhaps the God of Mischief finally decided to turn a new leaf. However, we see that this theory proves untrue, as Loki continues to scheme behind Thor’s back, faking his death yet again.
Believed to be dead after the events of The Dark World, Loki had secretly been impersonating his father, Odin, as the king of Asgard. Five years since we last saw him, Loki was 1,053 years old during the events of Thor: Ragnarok. This movie also sees the brothers reunited in the battle against their estranged and dangerous older sister, Hela.
Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame
The post-credit scene of Thor: Ragnarok led directly to the opening scenes of Avengers: Infinity War, which means the two take place in the same year. As a result, Loki is still 1,053. It is in this movie however, that Loki is finally killed by Thanos, who quips that there will be “no resurrections this time,” alluding to Loki’s two previous fake deaths.
Avengers Endgame sees the remaining Avengers who survived the snap travel back in time to reverse its effects. As they land in 2012, their mission doesn’t go exactly to plan, and the Loki of that time ends up with the Tesseract, allowing him to teleport out of his imprisonment. This in turn, kickstarts the events of the series, Loki.
So how old is Loki by the events of Loki?
While the first season of Loki was released after the Infinity Saga, the version of Loki we follow in the series is the one from Avengers: Endgame, who escaped with the Tesseract. This means that, in the first season of Loki, he is back to being 1,047 years old, just as he was in 2012.
With all the time travel and jumping that has taken place in Loki, it is safe to say that determining how much time passes in the show is impossible. His escapades outside of time have effectively rendered things, especially his age null and void. Nevertheless, we can give it our best shot based on what he goes through across the two seasons.
Seasons 1 and 2 take place back-to-back, likely taking up the equivalent of a few months for Loki’s personal experience. However, this changes in the season 2 finale in which the god has to spend “centuries” becoming an expert on temporal engineering in order to figure out how to fix the Temporal Loom. Unfortunately, it’s not specified how many centuries, but let’s hazard a guess that it’s at least above 300 years. So Loki could easily have caught up to his brother Thor at this point and be around 1,500 years old.
Whether he’s 1,053 or 1,500, though, the fact of the matter is that this god, just like his Norse mythology inspiration, is ageless and immortal.
Published: Nov 10, 2023 07:22 am