3 Ways Loki Can Return to the MCU
The Loki season 2 finale has fans divided. Some see Loki’s transformation into “God Loki”—and his apparent imprisonment in Yggdrasil, the World Tree—as the perfect culmination of his character arc. Others (like me) aren’t satisfied with an ending that seems to punish him with an eternity of solitude. But will Loki eventually return? It’s very likely. After all, Marvel has already planted several seeds.
Tom Hiddleston himself has been ambiguous about whether Loki will come back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, telling Comicbook.com that it’d be “unwise” to assume his time in the MCU is finished. Thanks to the multiverse, Marvel has the option of introducing as many Loki variants as it wants, but that wouldn’t be a very satisfying direction for the character. Instead, here are three plausible ways for Loki to come back, based on the comics and the Loki variants already in the MCU.
Kid Loki
With a Young Avengers film looking overwhelmingly likely, it’s probably only a matter of time before we catch up with Kid Loki, the young variant introduced in Loki season 1. He may be stuck in the Void at the End of Time for now, but with several Marvel characters wielding multiverse-traveling powers, it’d be astonishing if he didn’t show up in the main Marvel timeline sooner or later.
It pains me to write this, since I’m jonesing for a Hiddleston/Hemsworth reunion, but there’s precedent in the comics for Kid Loki to be the one who teams up with Thor. In the comics, Loki is reincarnated as a child after he’s killed by Sentry. When the newly born Kid Loki finds Thor, they have an emotional reunion, and Thor takes him under his wing.
With Hiddleston’s Loki now tasked with guarding the multiverse, it’s hard to imagine him casually showing up to tell Thor he’s alive. However, it would be very easy for Marvel to engineer the reunion we’ve been waiting for using Kid Loki instead—and even have God Loki pulling the strings from afar. Uh oh, now we’re all crying again!
But would it be a repetitive character beat for Thor, after adopting Gorr’s daughter at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder? Maybe.
President Loki
We meet President Loki in Loki season 1, when he attacks the bunker the other Lokis are hiding out in. This Loki variant probably wouldn’t make for a very interesting longterm addition to the MCU, but there is an opportunity for a fun cameo—and rumor has it that it’s already in the works.
According to supposed leaks from Marvel, Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson both filmed scenes for Deadpool 3, which should resume filming soon now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has ended. The rumors state that the version of Loki who appears in Deadpool 3 will not be the same Loki we’ve been following on Disney+. Considering that set photos seem to show Deadpool and Wolverine in the Void, President Loki is a reasonable guess.
Is any of this information true? Who knows? But stranger rumors than this one have borne fruit. Remember that time Patrick Stewart played Professor X in a Doctor Strange movie?
Avenger Prime
Of these three theories, this one is my favorite.
Earlier this year, the Avengers in Marvel comics dealt with a multiversal threat of their own. In Avengers Forever #13, a team of heroes from throughout the multiverse come together to fight a group of villains including Doctor Doom and Mephisto. The figure who brings them all together turns out to be none other than Loki, a.k.a. Avenger Prime.
In the comics, this Loki is a variant who turns away from villainy, and then finds himself burdened with the responsibility of protecting the multiverse. Sound familiar?
It would be incredibly easy for Marvel to adapt this storyline to the MCU. From his throne in Yggdrasil, Loki now has a bird’s-eye view of the multiverse. He may even have the power to manipulate timelines and open doorways to different realities as necessary. With the multiversal war looming on the horizon—and with heroes now springing up in different realities in the MCU—the Avengers across the multiverse need someone capable of assembling them, and Loki is the most logical choice.
How great would that be? Not only would we get “our” Loki back, but we’d get to see him flexing his new capital-G-God powers over time and space. And maybe we could get that Hiddleston/Hemsworth reunion after all.
(featured image: Disney+)
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