Thor: Love and Thunder made $302 million at the global box office during its opening weekend, with $143 million in domestic ticket sales alone. Millions of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) fans already know what happens in Marvel’s new MCU movie and what it means for the franchise’s future. But there’s one mind-blowing Loki reveal hidden in Thor: Love and Thunder and it might not be immediately apparent. After all, the God of Mischief isn’t really part of Taika Waititi’s new story.
Before we can explain, you should know that big Love and Thunder plot spoilers will follow below. If you haven’t seen Love and Thunder, you should check our spoiler-free Thor 4 review instead.
Going into Love and Thunder, MCU fans know that the Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from the primary reality died long ago. It was a heroic death in Infinity War, where Loki tried to kill Thanos (Josh Brolin) and save everyone else.
Some fans speculated that Loki might have faked his death again. The Loki TV series explored that scenario, with one Loki variant having faked their death in a different reality. But the TVA discovered that old Loki and pruned him out of the Sacred Timeline.
The MCU Loki died in Infinity War. Period. The Loki we have now in the MCU comes from a branch reality that was also pruned. This is another sympathetic Loki who won our hearts in the TV show, getting a different character arc than the Loki from the primary MCU reality.
Does Loki appear in Thor: Love and Thunder?
The Loki in the TV show is still alive and we expect him to interact with other MCU characters down the road. That assumes we get massive multiverse stories where superheroes from all sorts of worlds interact.
With all that in mind, we were not surprised to see how Love and Thunder handled Loki. This is the first Thor movie where Loki doesn’t play an active role in the action.
We see two variants of Loki in the movie, and one is the Matt Damon version of Loki. But Damon plays an Asgardian actor who plays the God of Mischief in their silly theater.
The other is the Loki who died repeatedly in the MCU until he finally perished in Infinity War. That Loki appears via flashbacks as Korg (Taika Waititi) recaps the story of Thor for the children. Then we have the Loki tattoos on Thor’s back, but that’s more of a tribute than a Loki appearance.
Like I said before, Loki’s presence in Thor: Love and Thunder is something you’ll almost miss. And “presence” might be too strong a word because no variant of Loki appears anywhere in the movie except for the aforementioned flashback.
But there is a place where one would find the MCU’s Loki, and everything clicks thanks to the post-credits scene featuring Jane (Natalie Portman).
What’s the big Loki reveal?
During the movie, Jane dies heroically in battle, helping Thor defeat Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Her cancer kills her rather than the injury sustained from fighting Gorr.
Jane’s death resembles the death of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) in Ragnarok. Her body turns to golden ashes, much to the surprise of Thor. We then see Jane in the post-credits scenes arriving in Valhalla, where Heimdall (Idris Elba) welcomes her.
Not only that, but we also learn that Heimdall saw what happened in the universe and how Jane helped Thor save his son.
The post-credits scene depicts Valhalla as a place where many souls live, even though it’s just Heimdall who shows up. The scene implies that those heroes who reached Valhalla might return in different Marvel movies. Especially Jane. That’s the only reason to show Valhalla, after all.
And this is where the Loki revelation comes in. The MCU Loki who died in battle in Infinity War also has to be in Valhalla. Thor: Love and Thunder might not show anyone else in that realm. But Loki has to be there.
Some will say that Loki’s death did not get the same animation as Jane’s. And that’s true. But Odin also got a Jane-like death despite not dying in actual battle.
It might not be Marvel’s intention to make us connect these dots. But now that the gates of Valhalla have been opened, we have another chance to get the MCU’s primary Loki back.
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