Tom Hiddleston Confirms End of Marvel Journey, Says Loki Has “Come Full Circle”

Tom Hiddleston has seemingly confirmed the end of his time as Loki in the MCU.

Of all the actors to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, few are as prolific as Tom Hiddleston. The British actor made his debut as Loki alongside Chris Hemsworth in Thor (2011). First introduced as the adopted brother of the God of Thunder, Loki was soon established as a villainous threat, with the God of Mischief going on to act as the primary antagonist in The Avengers (2012).

As the franchise continued, Tom Hiddleston appeared as Loki alongside Hemsworth in two of the three Thor sequels: Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). He also played a huge part in the opening of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), in which the character seemingly met his fate at the hand of Thanos (Josh Brolin).

Loki being Loki, he didn’t stay dead for long. As the Avengers traveled through time to retrieve the Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame (2019), the 2012 version of Loki appeared in a throwback to the Battle of New York. This time around, he manages to escape and swipe the Tesseract (AKA the Space Stone) – which leads audiences straight into the events of Loki.
The first season of the Disney+ series sees the God of Mischief arrested by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) after creating a new timeline by escaping from the Battle of New York. Over the course of six episodes, he’s forced to help the TVA – including his fast friend Mobius (Owen Wilson) – catch a dangerous variant version of himself.

While responses to the Marvel series on Disney+ have been mixed, to say the least, Loki went down extremely well with fans. In general, the actor has proven himself to be a Marvel legend over the course of his 12-year tenure in the franchise, with Hiddleston often commenting on his own love of the character.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Hiddleston once hosted a ‘Loki School’ for his castmates on the show. During this class, he explained to his co-star Wilson why he enjoys playing the character so much. “I think it’s because he has so much range,” he said. “I remember saying this to him: on the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he’s the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.”
But despite his attachment to the character, it seems like Hiddleston’s time in the MCU has reached its end. The second season of Loki wrapped up on November 9, and (spoilers ahead!) it saw everyone’s favorite god pursue a new path.

In the season finale, Loki destroys the Temporal Loom – the device that maintains the Sacred Timeline. He then manages to revive and rearrange the timelines himself before adopting a new role: overseeing all of its branches at the End of Time.Loki replaces Timely in approaching the Loom. Loki destroys the Loom, magically revives the dying timelines and rearranges them into a tree-like structure, committing himself to oversee the branches alone at the End of Time.

The episode seemingly serves as the conclusion of Loki’s character arc in the MCU. The god – who always struggled with his “glorious purpose” – has now found the ultimate purpose.

Audiences had questioned whether this truly served as the end of Loki’s story. A recent interview with Loki writer Eric Martin seemed to confirm that there were no more stories to come from the God of Mischief. Sitting down with CinemaBlend, he explained that they “approached [Loki] as like two halves of a book. Season one, first half. Season two, we close the book on Loki and the TVA. Where it goes beyond that, I don’t know. I just wanted to tell a full and complete story across those two seasons.”While this didn’t necessarily rule out future appearances for Loki, it does confirm that the creative side of Marvel see this as a natural ending point for his character. Judging by comments made by Tom Hiddleston himself in an appearance to promote the season finale on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, he feels similarly – confirming that he sees it as the end of a “journey” for both himself and Loki.

“If you haven’t seen it, I will not spoil it for you but I will say this, it all comes full circle,” he said. “It’s the conclusion of season two. It’s also the conclusion to seasons one and two. It’s also the conclusion to six films and 12 episodes and 14 years of my life. I was 29 when I was cast, I’m 42 now. it’s been a journey.”