Loki, the God of mischief, is expected to sit out Thor: Love and Thunder. Although he’s still alive in the MCU, per his TV series, as far as Chris Hemsworth and director Taika Waititi are concerned their Loki is truly dead and gone.
When asked about Tom Hiddleston, who plays Loki, appearing in the action movie, Hemsworth joked before getting at a genuine point. “He didn’t want to be involved. He said ‘I hate all of you, and in particular me,’ and I was like, that’s a shame,” he told CinemaBlend. “And that’s it. I mean, how many times can we kill him?”
Obviously the first part is tongue-in-cheek, but the second part is relevant. Loki has suffered several onscreen deaths at this point, and the last, having his neck broken by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, was both severe and a logical end-point for his arc. He redeemed himself by trying to take out the Mad Titan, and gave Thor further impetus to take down the cosmic tyrant.
“We love Tom. Yeah. But he’s dead. Not him, but the character of Loki,” Hemsworth continued, Waititi added: “No, no, he’s just dead to us.”
That’s the crux of the matter. Loki exists in the TVA, now the centrepoint for the collapse of the multiverse in Phase 4, but as far as the Thor movies go, he died. Technically, that’s not even a stretch because the one in the sci-fi series is actually from 2012’s The Avengers who was arrest time-travelling.
We won’t get too into it here, but yeah, this all checks out. Sort of. In any case, you can catch Hemsworth in Waititi’s new fantasy movie Thor: Love and Thunder July 7 in the UK, and July 8 in the US. Check out our guide to Loki season 2 for more on Hiddleston.