Loki’s Marvel Cinematic Universe journey ended at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War when he was choked to death by Thanos… or so we thought. While the original Loki we watched across five movies is indeed dead, Avengers: Endgame introduced an alternate timeline Loki who’s alive and well, and will be leading his own Disney+ show. Now there’s word that this other Loki could find his way to the main MCU timeline and appear in Thor: Love and Thunder.
As has previously been revealed, Disney+ Loki series will follow the alternate, Avengers-era Loki who escaped with the Tesseract, a.k.a. the Space Stone, in Avengers: Endgame traveling to different time periods, like 1975 circa when Jaws came out. Because this Loki is nowhere near the path to redemption that his original self eventually walked down, we can be reasonably worried that his time traveling shenanigans will cause more harm than good.
But it goes beyond screwing around Earth’s history. According to a rumor posted by Fandomwire, after its eponymous character has changed a number of historical events, Loki will end with Tom Hiddleston’s trickster harnessing the power of the Tesseract to cross through the multiverse to the main MCU timeline so he can participate in the events of Thor: Love and Thunder.
Wait, there’s more! At San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster will be returning in Thor: Love and Thunder, and like her comic book counterpart, she will become The Mighty Thor. There’s just one problem: the Marvel Comics Jane used Mjolnir, and the MCU’s version of the mystical hammer was destroyed in Thor: Ragnarok. And since Steve Rogers took the Dark World-era Mjolnir back to its proper time period at the end of Avengers: Endgame, what weapon is Jane supposed to use?
Well, apparently the alternate Loki is bringing his timeline’s Mjolnir into the main timeline for Thor: Love and Thunder, and that will be the catalyst for Jane Foster’s godly transformation. What’s unclear how the hammer comes into Loki’s possession during his Disney+ show, and I seriously doubt that at this stage of his life, he’s deemed worthy enough to wield it.
Assuming all this information is correct, that means Loki is the second Disney+ series that will directly tie into a Marvel movie. It was previously revealed at SDCC that not only will Elizabeth Olsen reprise Scarlet Witch in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but the events of her show, WandaVision, will lead into what goes down in the Doctor Strange sequel.
We’ll have to wait and see if this Loki information ends up being confirmed, but it was recently reported that Taika Waititi has finished the script for Thor: Love and Thunder, which will also bring back Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. Presumably it will be a while before any official plot details are announced, but having the alternate Loki participate in Love and Thunder could be a cool way to provide a different dynamic between the two Odinson brothers without negating the sacrifice and emotional impact of the earlier Loki’s death.
In case you need a refresher on how the alternate Loki came to be in Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers who survived The Decimation went on a Time Heist through the Quantum Realm five years after the genocide occurred to collect the Infinity Stones and bring those who were dusted back to life. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Scott Lang were tasked with retrieving the Space Stone in 2012, specifically the aftermath of The Battle of New York.
Unfortunately for them, due to various mistimed events, the glowing cube ended up being kicked over in the incarcerated Loki’s direction while he was being escorted out of Stark Tower. Seeing an opportunity to escape, and with his captors focused on the past version of Tony experienced unexpected cardiac arrest (thanks, Ant-Man), Loki grabbed the Tesseract, opened a portal and hightailed it out of there.
That still doesn’t explain how Loki will be able to travel through time on his show, since of the six Infinity Stones, it’s the Time Stone (duh) that allows one to engage in temporal manipulation. Perhaps the Space Stone has somehow allowed Loki to access the Quantum Realm, the avenue through which Tony Stark and the gang carried out the Time Heist.
In any case, if Loki does actually show up in Thor: Love and Thunder, you can be sure that his presence will bring nothing but trouble. I can only imagine how Thor will react to seeing his brother alive again and then realizing he’s far from being reformed like the original Loki became. And since Loki is the one who will bring Mjolnir back into play, I can’t help but worry if this will result in something bad happening to Jane Foster when she turns into the God of Thunder.
It’s worth noting Tom Hiddleston isn’t just reprising Loki in the live action realm, whether it’s in just the series or the fourth Thor movie too. He’s also set to voice the character in What If… ?, the animated Disney+ series that sees Utau the Watcher (voiced by Jeffrey Wright) looking at different historical events in the MCU and showing what would happen if they’d had different outcomes.
The other MCU Disney+ shows that are officially on the way are The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye, with the former also bringing back Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter and Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo, and the latter seeing Clint Barton training Kate Bishop, who hasn’t been cast yet. It remains to be seen if these shows will also somehow connect to upcoming Marvel movies or if they’ll be more self-contained.
Thor: Love and Thunder will be released in theaters on November 5, 2021, and while the Loki series doesn’t have an official launch date yet, production is scheduled to begin early next year and it will drop on Disney+ sometime in early 2021. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for continuing coverage on both project, and check out our Marvel movies guide to learn what else the MCU is bringing to the big screen in the coming years.
Don’t forget to also visit our 2019 release schedule to learn what movies are coming out for the rest of the year.
