Avengers: Endgame
brought us many answers to the questions we had after Infinity War, but it raised several others in the process as well as bringing controversy about time travel rules in the MCU. Fans still debate whether Captain America retired in the past of the main MCU timeline, or spawned an alternate branch, even though Marvel settled the matter for good — he’s in a different timeline according to the studio. But Marvel wasn’t as quick to provide answers for all the new Endgame mysteries since they might spoil Phase 4 titles. A new rumor now provides interesting details about a beloved Marvel character who remained dead at the end of Endgame. Apparently, not only will he make an appearance in Phase 4 movies, but Marvel is said to be working on a massive makeover for this particular hero.
Marvel confirmed about a month ago that Loki will return to Marvel movies as soon as 2021, when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness premieres — here are Kevin Feige’s comments:
The Scarlet Witch will be a key character in that movie, and Feige points out that the Loki series will tie in, too. “I’m not sure we’ve actually acknowledged that before,” he says. “But it does.”
What we know at the end of Endgame is that Loki’s death, which happened early in Infinity War long before the snap, is final. Hulk only brought back the living beings that were snapped out of existence, without modifying anything else. He did try to resurrect Natasha, but that wasn’t possible.
However, the movie also gives us a brand new Loki, who we’ve been calling 2012 Loki. That hero — well, he’s still a villain at that point in time — grabbed the Tesseract that the Avengers were trying to retrieve from the past and then escaped.
Loki actor Tom Hiddleston confirmed a few months ago on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show that the Loki series will explain everything:
In the years since Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which came out this spring, two questions have been asked: Is Loki really dead, and what is Loki doing with that cube? And this series will answer both of those questions.
This brings us to the new Loki rumor that says Marvel is looking to replace Hiddleston with a younger actor for the future of the MCU. That’s because according to We Got This Covered sources, Loki will be turned into the childhood version of himself at some point in Thor: Love and Thunder, and he’ll remain in that form in future projects:
To clarify, Hiddleston will be in [Love and Thunder] as well, but the movie will write him out for the foreseeable future by having him get stuck as the aforementioned Kid Loki. This doesn’t mean he’s gone for good, but we’re hearing that there’s a feeling amongst industry insiders that he’s more of less done with the MCU at this point.
In the MCU Phase 4’s timeline, Doctor Strange 2 (May 7th, 2021) precedes Thor 4 (November 6th, 2021), which means Hiddleston’s Loki will appear in at least two more MCU films if this report is accurate.
While this is still a rumor, I’ll remind you that Marvel is also supposedly working on a Young Avengers team-up, according to various reports, which could benefit from the addition of a young version of Loki. 2012 Loki may still be a villain, but the MCU proved that Loki has the potential to become a hero and an Avenger rather than an antagonist.
