Loki Was Almost Killed Off For Real in Thor 2, But Audience Saved Him
Imagine how much MCU would’ve lost.
If you were to ask any MCU fan to name their favorite antagonist, you'd probably get Loki. Portrayed by Tom Hiddleston, he's everything a villain should be: smart, insanely charismatic, and with a backstory sad enough to make you care about him.
Killing him off in the second Thor movie would be a completely wrong move. Or would it? At least the director of the movie didn't think so when he wrote it, because Loki's death at the end was originally supposed to be a very real finale not only to his character's redemption arc, but also to his story as a whole.
While talking to Empire about the arc his character has gone through and all the complex emotions he has towards his family, Tom Hiddleston reflected on the original idea for such a finale:
“Loki's death on Svartalfheim was written as a death, and I would say Chris and I played that scene for real. That was meant to be that he redeemed himself, he helped save his brother, he helped save Jane Foster but that he, in the process, sacrificed himself,” the actor said.
At the time of filming, neither Hiddleston nor his co-star Chris Hemsworth, who portrayed the titular character Thor, knew about the change in plans.
In fact, there was no change planned, so audiences were treated to a brilliant performance of raw emotion. The actors perfectly captured the tragedy of two very different brothers losing each other after finally seeing themselves as a family.
It was only in the post-production stage of the film that the test audience bombed the decision to kill Loki, so another scene was added. Loki's escape wasn't very well thought out and received a lot of criticism from fans, but at least the fan-favorite character was saved so that everyone could enjoy him more in the future.
Now Loki is a central character in the Disney Plus TV series of the same name, and he returns to your screens with a new season on October 5th. Mark your calendars and tune in so you don't miss any more adventures.
Source: Empire via Digital Spy