Following the release of the first Thor: Love and Thunder trailer, Marvel fans have one big question on their minds: Will Tom Hiddleston return as Loki in the film? Thanks to the time traveling events of Avengers: Endgame, and Loki’s own multiverse adventures in his ongoing Disney+ series, the answer to that question is… messy, but we’ll break it down for you.
Love and Thunder takes place after the events of Endgame, which saw the Avengers bring back everyone Thanos snapped out of existence in Avengers: Infinity War. However, that did not include Loki, who was killed by Thanos in the opening scene of Infinity War. So, as far as the MCU timeline is concerned, Loki is dead going into Love and Thunder. That would make the chance of him appearing in the fourth film pretty low, and Hiddleston said in an interview that the first three Thor movies have already explored all that needs to be explored about Loki and Thor’s brotherhood.
That said, these are comic book characters, so here’s where things go bananas.
Before Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the Marvel multiverse to the big screen, the Loki series on Disney+ was already toying with alternate realities by plucking Loki from his timeline and setting him on a reality-bending quest. Loki catches up with the Trickster God after he uses the Cosmic Cube to escape shortly after losing the Battle of New York in the first The Avengers film. Instead of going on to die at the hands of Thanos, this Loki joins the Time Variance Authority where he eventually bears witness to the multiverse breaking loose thanks to a female Loki variant named Sylvie seeking revenge. Long story short, time and space is completely borked now, which leaves things wide open for some version of Loki to appear in Love and Thunder.
Speaking of…
Matt Damon has confirmed that he will, once again, be playing a version of Loki in Love and Thunder. The actor previously appeared in a brief cameo for Thor: Ragnarok where he played Loki in an Asgardian play heralding the Trickster God’s “death” in Thor: The Dark World. Presumably, Damon will be reprising his Asgardian actor role, but with the reality hijinks going down in the Loki series, anything is possible.
As for Tom Hiddleston coming back, Marvel is obviously going to play that one close to their chests until the very last minute, but we would not be surprised to see him pop up either in the film or an end-credits scene where the sky is the limit. Don’t quote us on that because Marvel is all about defying expectations, but we’re feeling pretty good about Hiddleston having at least some sort of cameo.
Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters on July 8, 2022.