Warning: this article contains spoilers for Thor: Ragnarok. Read ahead at your own risk!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe will never be the same after the events of Avengers: Infinity War. That is something that everyone involved in the film has continuously focused on as the hype machine has started to run, and the movie's newly-released trailer seems to hammer that idea home. There are quite a few characters who may end up on the chopping block, but the latest footage from the sprawling Marvel story now has many on social media worried that Tom Hiddleston's Loki may have survived Thor: Ragnarok only to die in the next Avengers team-up. Let's dive in to discuss this, but be warned, it could get emotional for some of us.
At the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Loki secretly steals the Tesseract during the evacuation of Asgard. Later, during the mid-credits sequence, we see Loki and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) stare out into space only to see that an enormous ship (belonging to Josh Brolin's Thanos) is staring back at them. We don't know much of what happens between that moment and Loki's first appearance in Infinity War, but the shot of him surrendering the Tesseract to an unseen being (believed to be Thanos) has many concerned that this moment will see Loki die in an attempt to trade the Infinity Stone for his life and the lives of the surviving Asgardian refugees. I swear I'm not crying; you're crying!
From a storytelling perspective, this makes a certain degree of sense. Loki has oscillated back and forth on the villain-hero spectrum for years, but the end of Ragnarok seemed to firmly plant him on the good side of the scale. He has already faked his demise numerous times in the MCU, and giving him one last moment to genuinely sacrifice himself for others would serve as a great way to cap off his arc. Beyond that, it would also solidify Thanos' place as one of the MCU's most dangerous and terrifying villains if were to be the one to take Marvel's current fan-favorite bad guy off of the table.
On the other hand, Loki has a long history of surviving events that would kill most characters, which makes his chances of walking away from Thanos unscathed better than other characters in the MCU. Moreover, both Loki and Tom Hiddleston are two fan-favorite elements of the entire Marvel franchise, so the likability factor could undoubtedly help keep the Trickster God alive. We do not know what happens in the aftermath of him handing over the Tesseract to The Mad Titan, which means any theories about his fate are purely hypothetical until we learn more.
If you want a closer look at all of the awesome new footage that Marvel revealed to us today, then check out the first official Avengers: Infinity War trailer below.
You can currently catch Loki in Thor: Ragnarok, and we hope you enjoy his appearance in that story, because we are now on pins and needles wondering if he is going to die when Avengers: Infinity War debuts in theaters next year on May 4, 2018.
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