The recent second season of Marvel Studios' Loki concluded on a bittersweet note for the fan-favorite God of Mischief.
Though the season finale appeared to give the former villain a pretty definitive ending by allowing him to fulfil his "Glorious Purpose" and claim a throne - even if it wasn't the one he had originally envisioned - but the door was left open (or at least ajar) for him to return down the line.
After deciding to, for all intents and purposes, sacrifice himself by destroying the Temporal Loom and use his magic to gather all the loose timelines together, Loki essentially transformed into a version of Yggdrasil, the World Tree from Norse mythology.
It's implied that "God Loki" must sit here for eternity to ensure that his friends and everyone else can live in peace on the various timelines, but will this be the last we see of the character?
Tom Hiddleston has said that he truthfully doesn't know what's next for Loki in previous interviews, but while speaking to Backstage.com, he sounds a little more confident that he will get to return to the role before "passing it on.".
“Loki is ‘a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment,’ ” the actor says, quoting Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, “and I want to make it burn as brightly as I can before passing it on to future generations.”
Hiddleston declined to come right out and confirm that he will reprise the role, but did give his take on Loki's "moving" final moments in the Disney+ series.
“I hope it feels redemptive because his broken soul is partially healed; and you see that this character, who is capable of love, has made a decision from and for love,” he says. “At the end of Season 2, Loki is sitting on a kind of throne; but it’s not arrived in the shape he expected, and there’s no glory in it. There’s a kind of burden, and he’s alone. He’s doing it for his friends, but he has to stay there without them. There’s a poetic melancholy there which I found very moving.”
Maybe this really is the end of the line for Loki, but it wouldn't be the first - or second - time the character has cheated death. Hiddleston also confirms that his Thor: The Dark World demise was originally going to stick.
“As written in the first script, it was a true sacrifice. When Marvel [executives] were testing the movie, they’d given [viewers] questionnaires that said, ‘Is there anything you didn’t understand?’ ” he remembers. “Literally every single audience member said, ‘Well, obviously, Loki’s not really dead.’ ”
Obviously! Something tells us Hiddleston will get to play Loki again, at least one more time.
All six episodes of Loki season 2 are now streaming on Disney+.