Despite His Gripping Death, This Is How Loki Could Reap More Doom In The MCU
Yes, I’ll admit it. The hidden witticism in the title was both uncalled for and quite frankly delivered too soon. But if the last few years of the MCU film franchise has taught us anything it is that the unheard of is just part of everyday life for those among us. *Warning to those whom it may concern* This article contains multiple spoilers of the events in Avengers: Endgame, so if by now you somehow haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame then seriously what have you been doing? Get your priorities right, quit your job and go to your nearest cinema, now.
Okay now I’ve gotten the warning out of the way I can splurge out some of the good stuff to you lovely people. Avengers: Endgame gave us so much more than we could have ever expected, answering all our questions whilst also proposing countless more at the same time. This article will discus just one of those newly placed questions, and one that some how managed to fly right under the radar of so many of the film’s viewers. No not that Steve Rodgers scene, or that Tony Stark scene but in fact the scene in which Loki quite possibly alters the universe single handed. Or at least, a universe.
The scene I’m talking about is during the Time Heist carried out by the mighty Avengers; their attempt to travel back in time and collect the Infinity Stones before Thanos has a chance to snap his fingers and carry out his destiny of wiping out half of all life in the universe. During their first attempt at collecting the Tesseract things don’t go quite to plane and due to an unplanned Hulk to the face for Tony Stark the Tesseract falls at the feet of the then prisoner Loki. The Son of Odin then uses The Space Stone’s power to teleport himself elsewhere. Where exactly is never clarified. However, at this point in history Loki didn’t possess the Infinity Stone, meaning that he either created a different timeline or a different self in the existing timeline. One still based in the current universe.
At the same time as this all unfolds Bruce Banner is deep in conversation with The Ancient One, she talks of the repercussions of removing one of the balancing Infinity Stones from its correct time and place. Summed up if you were to take a Stone away from its destined place in reality, then a new timeline and universe would be created from that exact moment. Due to this new imbalance in the universe, all the forces of darkness have a window to cause cataclysmic damage to all life in the universe, hitherto undreamt of. When Loki picks up the Tesseract right after the Battle of New York, he never should have. Because of this the consequences laid out by The Ancient One will most likely unfold. After all, according to the laws of time travel stated by Hulk in this film, changing the past only created an alternative parallel timeline, so when Steve Rodgers places the Tesseract back in the same place in 1970, that didn’t change a thing from when Loki acquired it in 2012.
As we all know in the films to come after Avengers Assemble Loki washed away his evil nature and opted for the lighter side of the fight. But due to the timing the Loki that escaped would still be evil — and due to it creating a second self that specific Loki wouldn’t go through any of the things that managed to sway his allegiances. In 2012 Loki was in the middle of his darkest time, still before his and Thor’s bonding and coming together for the better in Thor 2, and Thor: Ragnarök. The Loki at this time was still set of causing pain and destruction on his undying effort to sit on the throne of Asgard. Meaning that the darkest known Loki managed to escape from the Avengers, with one of the most powerful objects in the universe in his possession.
Oddly, this moment is never discussed again during the rest of the film. Most likely due to the efforts of creating a new gauntlet, using it to bring half of the universe back to life and then followed by one of the largest fight scenes ever shown in movie history. If we know Loki though, and a Loki with the power of an Infinity Stone for that matter then we can be assured that he will be using it to its full ability, causing mayhem in some parallel universe. Now this has also been all but confirmed by none other than one of the Russo brothers (the directors of Avengers: Endgame), Anthony Russo. During an interview with Los Angeles Times, when asked if Loki was still alive after the events of Endgame and his unprecedented murder in Infinity War, Russo replied with nothing other than “Loki could absolutely still be alive in an alternate timeline”.
If this isn’t enough to create sheer excitement amongst the MCU fanbase then frankly I don’t know what is. One piece of information that has been released to the public is the newest Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer. In this two-minute-long clip it shows Mysterio informing Peter Parker that before the third snap happened, a second universe was created. A universe where evil appears to be in full force and causing havoc everywhere you look. It is quite possibly that the exact reason this second universe was created is the fact that Loki removed the Tesseract from its destined path. This would both explain why it has been created and why it is so imbalanced in the fight between good and evil. The fact that Quentin Beck, could travel between universes suggest that Loki can also. So could we be instore for a return of Loki in this known Marvel Comic Universe; possibly in Spider-Man: Far From Home or Guardians of the Galaxy 3 for a royal reunion with his brother. Or even could we be welcomed with a stand-alone Loki film or even a TV show on Disney+. Either way I’m sure this isn’t the last we have seen of the formidable Loki.
