We are officially three months away from the movie event of the year. Marvel Studios' highly-anticipated - and long-awaited - Avengers: Doomsday is set to change the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and break a whole lot of box office records along the way. It's the movie that the franchise's Multiverse Saga has been building towards and it's the one that will reunite Earth's Mightiest Heroes for their greatest battle of all.
With Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom at the forefront of it, the film brings together all of the MCU's recent multiversal arcs. Although the Multiverse Saga has had some ups and downs, one of the biggest throughlines has been its focus on change, aftermath, and succession - as a number of heroes have taken over from their Infinity Saga predecessors. There is one, however, that has simply replaced a doppelganger of themselves.
With that in mind, if you haven't been keeping up with the events of the MCU ever since those incredible end credits of Avengers: Endgame, here's what you need to know about this character's return - and why he's back after his apparent demise in the Infinity Saga.
Tom Hiddleston's newer Loki is different from his Infinity Saga predecessor
If you were one of the multiple Marvel fans who tuned out after the franchise's epic conclusion of the MCU's own Infinity Saga, then you might be surprised to see that Tom Hiddleston is a part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast list - especially as he isn't playing a multiversal variant of the character like the returning X-Men stars. Loki was, of course, one of the biggest characters of the MCU during its peak but he was killed by Thanos in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, seemingly ending the God of Mischief's run. Hiddleston would then make a cameo as the 2012 version of Loki in the saga's aptly-titled endgame Avengers: Endgame.
However, it was that cameo that ultimately provided him with a gateway to a long-term MCU return. See, this new version of Loki that he is playing is not the original version of the character who grew to love his brother Thor (Chris Hemsworth) after launching an invasion on New York City in The Avengers. While he did launch that same invasion (as the Avengers paid a returning visit to 2012 in Avengers: Endgame), his fate was altered when he escaped into the timeline with the Tesseract. And if that was your only experience with that particular Loki, then you may not know that he would go on to become a major part of the MCU's Multiverse Saga, effectively allowing Hiddleston to remain on as a slightly alternate version of the character.
That version of the character would go on to headline Disney Plus' Loki, which ran for two groundbreaking seasons and Marvel Studios considers imperative watching before Avengers: Doomsday. It saw the character learn about what his primary MCU variant did, how he bonded with his brother and ultimately sacrificed himself to protect him from Thanos; although he didn't believe it at first, he got emotional in the end - something that eventually set him on a path to joining the Time Variance Authority, which would have ultimately tried to prune him out of existence.
He bonded with TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius and even a female Loki variant known as Sylvie. Although the latter's actions created a rift that eventually resulted in the Temporal Loom's own destruction - which threatened the existence of every timeline and universe within the multiverse itself. And, therefore, in an unexpectedly selfless act, Loki enchanted the timelines with his own magic and sat on the throne at The End of Time, replacing Kang the Conqueror variant He Who Remains. In that moment, the God of Mischief became the God of Stories, sitting on the most lonely throne in the multiverse in order to preserve the lives, fates, and worlds of all that he holds dear.
That brings us to Avengers: Doomsday, where the Multiverse itself is once again in danger. Although Kang the Conqeuror has since been moved off the board entirely by Marvel Studios, a new threat has risen to answer the call: Victor von Doom. He will be directly involved in a series of multiversal incursions that threaten the existence of all of the worlds within it - including the MCU's Earth-616 itself. And that will put him directly into Loki's crosshairs.
Loki is the very one protecting the worlds that the incursions - and Doom himself - threatens to destroy. It's only fitting that the God of Stories attempt to stop the evil that could potentially wipe out of those stories. And, to do so, it appears that he could be the one who eventually reunites as many of the Avengers as possible.
According to reports, Loki will show up outside Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter's house to alert them that Doom is on his way. It sounds like Steve's decision to go back in time and spend his life with Peggy Carter could be directly responsible for causing the incursion that killed Doctor Doom's family - resulting in the reign of terror that inevitably unfolds. It would be pretty incredible if it was Loki - one of Steve's earliest enemies in the MCU - was the one to try and recruit him in the fight for the multiverse.
Speaking of which, fans are holding out hope that this will be the movie in which Thor and Loki reunite. This version of Loki didn't live the life that saw the two become true brothers and Thor doesn't know that there is still a version of his brother alive out there. Together, those two forces - both whom will indeed appear in Avengers: Doomsday - can save the multiverse together.
Taking all of that into account, it's pretty clear that Loki will play a pretty major role in Avengers: Doomsday. As a result of that, Tom Hiddleston appears in his fourth Avengers movie, albeit playing a somewhat different version of Loki than the one he played in the original film. And, as those of us who have watched Loki know, this could end up being an even more important version of the character.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in movie theaters on December 18, 2026.
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