Infinity War featured a number of deaths, but the one that first told us the film would be absolutely merciless was Loki’s demise, when Thanos killed him after acquiring the Space Stone. Tom Hiddleston’s trickster has been by far the most beloved villain – or anti-hero, later on – in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, so fans were understandably very upset to see him go. But could he return in Avengers 4?
Well, seeing as the God of Mischief has faked his death before, a lot of people just aren’t buying that he’s really gone for good. Yes, Hiddleston himself has told us that Loki won’t be coming back, but unlike his buddy Tom Holland, he knows how to keep a secret and could just be saying this to throw us off the scent. I mean, the amount of evidence pointing to the villain having faked his own death is overwhelming at this point and today, we have even more.
Found over on Reddit (obviously), what this user puts forth is that the key is in the character’s behavior. At the start of the scene, he’s visibly terrified. You can see that Thanos and his Black Order genuinely frighten him. However, later on he’s all cocky and confident, like he knows he’s got the Mad Titan beat. And it’s this which has led some to think that in reality, Loki’s totally in control of the situation.
Here’s the theory in full:
Loki plays tricks on nearly every single character in the MCU. ranging from altering the appearance of a room to faking his own death, everything he does is thought out. So why is it that in the opening of Avengers: Infinity War that he dies so easily? It’s simple. He didn’t. When the movie opens we are shown the remains of the Asgardian refugee ship. Half of it is blown off and the only surviving members being Hulk, Thor, Loki, and Heimdall.
Thor resists, Hulk is quickly subdued, and Loki is very, very, visibly terrified. He tries to resist but he can’t. He is powerless. He is in direct view of the Black Order and Thanos, he can’t play any tricks. However, Loki forfeits the Tesseract for Thor’s life and at that moment Hulk provides Loki a distraction to momentarily save Thor and quickly leave the scene.
From this exact moment. Loki is in the clear. While Thor does go back to fight Thanos and ultimately loses, Loki is out of sight and clearly out of mind since after beating Thor, Hulk, and murdering Heimdall, Thanos is discussing his plans with the Black Order. Not once does he mention Loki. Soon after Loki comes out from behind rubble and his entire behavior is changed.
Before, Loki was terrified, tearing up at his brother, even offering up some foreboding words to Thor, “The Sun will shine on us again.” Now, Loki enters the scene cocky, practically mocking Thanos and taking a quick swipe with a dagger and ultimately being killed.
Continuing on, it reads:
His entire behavior is changed. He goes from fearful, terrified, helpless, powerless, to someone who believes he is in full control of the situation. Why else would he make himself known when Thanos clearly has bigger fish to fry and couldn’t care less about where Loki was at the time.
On a closing note, the two conflicting statements, “The Sun will shine on us again.” and “No resurrections this time.” are incredibly on the nose and slightly foreshadow that this isn’t the end for the God of Mischief.
TL;DR Loki’s behavior goes through an extreme change between scenes, so much so that it is practically a different scene entirely. Loki is petrified when Thor’s life is initially threatened. However, after having a short time off-screen, he comes back cocky and with a completely different temperament. Almost as though he believes he knows what will happen and he is in more control than Thanos. Even telling him, to his face whilst being choked to death “You will never be a God.” Almost as though Loki was mocking him. Loki faked his death, or else he would never have acted the way he had.
Though this is certainly a strong theory, we probably shouldn’t take it as gospel just yet. After all, Infinity War seemingly brought Loki’s character arc full circle, with the fan favorite having fully redeemed himself for his misdeeds by dying to protect his brother. Would Marvel really want to undo that to bring him back in Avengers 4?
Honestly, it’s hard to say right now. As we mentioned above, there’s a lot of really strong evidence out there that points to the God of Mischief having pulled another fast one on us in Avengers: Infinity War, and it would certainly not be out of character for him.
But again, his death in the film was perfect and there wouldn’t really be much left for him to do now anyways if he were to return. At the moment, all we can do is speculate, but feel free to chime in with your own thoughts in the usual place down below.