Avengers 4 just wouldn’t be the same with the naughty Norse god.
Luckily for his millions of fans, they definitely won’t have to find out. But will he only be back in flashback scenes or did he really cheat death yet again?
Loki’s riotous romp through the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemed to come to an abrupt and decidedly final end in Infinity War as Thanos tossed his lifeless body to the floor and warned: “No resurrections, this time.”
Except, there is clear proof that all is not what it seems.
Loki isn’t just a master of ephemeral illusion, his magic is far more powerful than that.
He cruelly faked his own death in The Dark World, allowing a devastated Thor to weep over his body.
Remember Thor is actually touching Loki in that scene. It is not simply a trick of the eye like Loki has performed before. The illusion is solid and tangible.
Could he really have done it twice? Wouldn’t Thanos have been able to tell?
Remember, too, Thanos at the time when they met on the Asgardian ship only possessed the Power Stone. He could not detect the Space Stone before Loki uncloaked it.
It follows, then, that he also could not detect whether Loki was faking his death or not.
Loki star Tm Hiddleston also gave major clues that Loki still has a future to play out.
When asked earlier this year what he thinks Loki should conquer next, Hiddleston said: “His own mind, I think. Actually, what has been revealed to me through playing him is that all these motivations were actually misguided. Needing to be king, needing the love of his father.
“And actually, it’s something in himself, this kind of self-rejection or self-disgust that he hasn’t fully realised. He hasn’t just relaxed into it.”
This very much sounds like an unfinished story.
Leaked set photos from the Atlanta Avengers 4 shoot late last year also appear to show Loki alive and well.
The setting seems to be the battle of New York from the first Avengers movie and they show Loki in chains abefore he was taken back to Asgard for judgement.
This is almost certainly a flashback, a time travel scene or an alternate dimesion as the surviving Avengers race back through their own past to try and stop The Snap happening.
It is most likely this will be the only way fans see Loki in Avengers 4.
However whether he is restored to life along with all the other fallen, or was already secretly alive anyway, Marvel Phase 4 must surely have more Loki madness to come.
