After the release of Thor and The Avengers, something interesting happened, people seemed to be really relating to the villain, Loki. It was crazy! All of a sudden the villain became a misunderstood heart-throb, with more fan art dedicated to him than any of the other Avengers combined. This could mostly be attributed the enduring popularity of actor Tom Hiddleston, who brought a new depth to the titular heros’ longtime nemesis.
This seemed to lead to a shift in the dynamic with the MCU, with the character becoming portrayed as much more of an Anti-Hero in his follow up appearances in Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. Now, a new piece of lore straight from the studio themselves may have now retconned an earlier appearance to fall in line with this new character arc.
A user on Reddit has noticed that Marvel have secretly updated Loki’s biography on their official website to confirm a long running fan theory in regards to the characters invasion of Earth during the events of 2012’s The Avengers. The theory speculated that Loki wasn’t full in control of his actions, instead being manipulated by his sceptre, which 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron would later reveal contained the Mind Stone. The character’s bio now reads:
Arriving at the Sanctuary through a wormhole caused by the Bifrost, Loki met the Other, ruler of the ancient race of extraterrestrials the Chitauri, and Thanos. Offering the God of Mischief dominion over his brother’s favorite realm Earth, Thanos requested the Tesseract in return. Gifted with a Scepter that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth.
This is an interesting change to the character, making his role in the franchise a lot more ambiguous than his early days in the comics, where he took on more of a villainous role. While the motivations behind this change are known only to Marvel, it may have something to do with the recently confirmed Loki television series which is set to debut on Disney’s own streaming service. Making Hiddleston’s God of Mischief a more heroic character would certainly be a much safer route in terms of drawing in an audience.
Hopefully, we will have some official confirmation in the near future.
What do you think? Do you like this change? Would you prefer they left the character as a villain? Let us know below!