This article contains spoilers for the Loki season 2 finale
Twelve years ago Tom Hiddleston made his debut as Loki in Thor. Few would have anticipated his story would still be unfolding after so many years, and nobody could have predicted the mind-bending conclusion to Loki season 2. Not bad considering Hiddleston originally auditioned to play Thor himself way back in the earliest days of the MCU.
Over that time Hiddleston’s Loki has attempted to invade Earth, been responsible for his mother’s death, reconciled with his brother Thor and, courtesy of the Avengers screwing with time in Endgame, became entangled in a multiversal battle to save the fabric of time.
Loki’s saga came to an epic end in the season 2 finale, with him concluding his character arc by getting the throne he’d always dreamed of, though with the twist that he can never leave it. Loki is now at the heart of Yggdrasil the world tree, ensuring that the multiversal timelines will no longer fall into chaos.
But is this really the end of Tom Hiddleston’s long MCU journey?
Will Loki return?
It’s worth underlining that the Loki we’ve been following in the show is just one variant and that there are now an infinite number of other Lokis out there in various forms and guises. At least one is an alligator so we know they don’t all look like the Loki we know and love, but President Loki proved there will be many resembling Hiddleston’s version of the character. As such it’d be fairly straightforward for a multiversal Loki variant to be written into a story, though whether that’ll actually happen remains to be seen.
It also seems that there are no plans for Loki season 3. In an interview with Cinemablend Head Writer Eric Martin said he considered the story is now complete:
“We approached this as like two halves of a book. Season one, first half. Season two, we close the book on Loki and the TVA. Where it goes beyond that, I don’t know. I just wanted to tell a full and complete story across those two seasons.”
Our take is that if Loki were to return it’d likely be a very different version of the character, perhaps a version of the comics ‘Kid Loki’ that we briefly saw in Loki season 1 that could team up with the Young Avengers?
Sylvie’s fate is also unclear. She’s finally gotten the freedom she craved and seems able to travel wherever she wants via TemPad. It’s plausible that Sophia di Martino could fill Hiddleston’s shoes in future Thor movies and it’d be very interesting to see Thor dealing with a female version of his long-lost brother. Di Martino was so fun as the character it’d be a shame if her journey ended here, so fingers crossed Kevin Feige can find a way for her Loki to pop up in a future story.
Will Tom Hiddleston be back?
It’s possible that Hiddleston could be back as Loki in just a few months. What If…? season 2 has two episodes that could feasibly feature him: “What if… Odin & Hela had faced Wenwu?” and “What if… Avengers had fought Surtur?” Hiddleston is not currently confirmed for the season 2 cast, but given that he voiced Loki in several season 1 episodes we wouldn’t be surprised to see him back here too.
Beyond that? It’s not looking so good. Hiddleston has given no indications whether he’d return for any future MCU movies or TV shows and right now it’s difficult to see where he’d fit in. This Loki may potentially play a role in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars if we see Kang’s destructive multiversal war. However, it’d take a lot of exposition to explain who the God of Time Loki is to audiences who didn’t tune in for the Disney Plus show.
So, for now, let’s assume Loki season 2 is Tom Hiddleston’s final bow as the god of mischief. It’s a heck of a way to exit the stage and Tony Stark suddenly has a contender for the most heroic action in the long history of the MCU. But… all we really want to say is “encore!”.