The biggest question going into Thor: Love and Thunder was whether Jane Foster was going to make it out of the movie alive. Her introduction seemed like a potential avenue for Marvel Studios to replace Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder—but that’s not what happened. Instead, Jane sacrificed her life to save the Gods from Gorr, going the same way as former Asgardians Heimdall and Loki.
In the post-credits scene, Natalie Portman’s character was seen appearing in the legendary land of Valhalla, the heaven of the Gods. She was quickly met by a friendly face, Heimdall, as he also thanked her for looking after his son and continued on to introduce her to the afterlife.
But there’s another big character who could have also shown his face at that very same moment: Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief. While audiences are currently following the Variant running around with the TVA right now in Loki on Disney+, let’s not forget the one who stood up to Thanos in order to save Thor Odinson's life.
So, was there ever a version that saw him in Valhalla, if ever so briefly?
So Why No Loki?
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Thor: Love and Thunder co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson talked about the potential of a Tom Hiddleston cameo and how they came around to including Love at the end of the movie.
When asked if she ever toyed with the idea of bringing back Hiddleston alongside Idris Elba in the Valhalla post-credits scene, the writer noted that it was “never on the table from what [she] understand[s]:"
“Never on the table from what I understand. He’s in Loki-land. He’s doing his own thing. They are on two separate journeys.”
The conversation then shifted to the introduction of Gorr’s daughter, Love. According to Robinson, “Gorr was always going to bring his daughter back into existence,” and that her “being what is brought forward from Eternity was always the end goal:”
“Love and Thunder was always Love and Thunder. Gorr was always going to bring his daughter back into existence. There were many different versions of that final scene. There were many different versions of, ‘Does Gorr always make the choice?’ Does his heart kind of betray him? Does he go to the very last minute, ‘No I want the gods to die,’ but because Eternity grants your deepest desire, it’s his daughter that’s brought back? There were a lot of different versions of how she came into being, but her coming into being and that being what is brought forward from Eternity was always the end goal.”
As for Brett Goldstein’s surprise appearance as Hercules, the writer revealed that his introduction was “a top-secret situation [that she] did not know about:”
“No, that was a top-secret situation I did not know about, and I was surprised to see [it] at the premiere. It’s fun to come to this movie where I knew all the twists and turns, but could still walk out of it being like, ‘holy shit!’”
No, Not That Loki
It does seem that the writer misunderstood the question a little bit. The person asking likely wasn’t referring to the version of Tom Hiddleston’s character who is seen in the Disney+ series—of course, he wouldn’t be making an appearance, as he’s lost in the Multiverse.
But there’s still Earth-616’s Loki, who died at the hands of Josh Brolin’s Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. There’s a good chance he would be in Valhalla alongside Heimdall after his death. It would have been pretty easy to sneak him into that same scene.
Maybe whenever the MCU gets around to continuing Jane Foster’s story, Marvel will be able to sneak in a scene with the God of Mischief that the world has known for over a decade. After all, with Avengers: Secret Wars on the table, anything is possible.
Thor: Love and Thunder is playing in theaters worldwide, while Loki’s second season is currently in production for debut at some point during Summer 2023 on Disney+.
