Billions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe suffered a horrific fate at the end of Avengers: Infinity War whether heroic or evil, corrupt or loyal.
Question marks still hover over a number of these ‘deaths’, with a number of the obliterated characters rumoured to be making a return in Avengers 4.
Loki met his demise in a much different way to the heroes who were wiped from existence, albeit still at the hands of Thanos. He died not by a finger click, but by having his neck snapped like a twig after taunting Thanos in his big, mean, purple face.
So it may not come as a complete surprise to fans that his death doesn’t have quite the same hopeful ambiguity as the likes of Spider-Man or Black Panther.
After months of worldwide head scratching, Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo have reportedly confirmed Loki as being dead as in dead, finally crushing that Bruce Banner theory.
Film writer Peter Sciretta, from Slash Film, shared the news while tweeting updates from a live Q&A after recent Infinity War screening.
Sciretta tweeted:
The Russo’s were asked about a fan theory that Bruce Banner is really Loki in disguise. They answered. That ‘Loki is dead’.
Sciretta also tweeted about how the Russo brothers had originally planned to shoot Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 simultaneously, but things got too complicated:
They originally planned to shoot both films at the same time but the stories got too complex and they wanted to treat them separately since they are very different films. So the decision was made a few months out to shoot them back to back instead as concurrent.
Crew in production meetings were getting confused about what scene was in what film and it was hurting the prep.
He added:
No one actually had the entire script. People who were in the film more than others had access to their scenes and knew more than others. There was also fake scenes and redacted scenes to protect secrecy.
They did three drafts of the film, one draft had Thanos as the narrator of the film and was non Linus’s in structure and had backstories for the Black order. That script was 250 pages. Writing out Thanos narration gave them insight on the character even though it didn’t make it.
Despite being a villainous trickster most of the time, Marvel fans enjoyed the Prince of Asgard’s mischievous ways and were saddened to see him meet a sticky end.
In the months since Infinity War, speculation has been rife about how the infamously cunning Loki could have survived having his neck broken by a Titan.
Some fans have insisted he faked his own death – which does sound very him – or that maybe another character had been posing as him at the time of his death.
It appears these rumours have been well and truly put to bed, with Loki’s time of death officially called.
However, Game of Thrones fans will remember how a certain character was also said to be dead and technically this was true…
Anyway, there’s always the Loki TV show if things don’t work out. But give up hope yet Loki fans!
Avengers 4 hits UK cinemas April 26, 2019.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.