Tom Hiddleston Is Back For Avengers: Doomsday – But How's That Possible After Loki Season 2?

The Marvel train just keeps chugging along. The buzzy news of the day concerns the seemingly never-ending casting announcement for "Avengers: Doomsday," which is adding one A-lister after another at a glacially slow pace. (For anyone who's ever wanted to see nothing but the backs of a bunch of chairs with actor names scribbled onto them for several hours straight, boy, do I have the livestream for you.) But while the vast majority of the reveals were pretty much to be expected (if you're surprised by the Fantastic Four appearing in the very first "Avengers" crossover film after their introduction, I may have an Avengers Tower to sell you), one addition was bound to catch fans by surprise.

That's right, folks: None other than Loki himself, played by Tom Hiddleston, will apparently be back to his mischievous ways in "Doomsday." On paper, this makes perfect sense. Of course the most popular villain in all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn't miss out on the biggest and most anticipated team-up film in franchise history.

But for those who've been following along with all the various movies and shows to this point, well, it raises some pretty wild questions about how, exactly, our favorite God of Mischief could possibly be back at all. Never mind that the original version of Loki died a pretty gruesome death at the hands of the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) back in the opening sequence of "Avengers: Infinity War." His time-traveling counterpart from "Endgame" managed to slip through the cracks and go on to star in his own spinoff show "Loki" on Disney+. But even that series, which brought the story to a fitting conclusion in the season 2 finale, would seem to preclude Loki's return since he's, you know, singlehandedly keeping the multiverse from falling apart as basically the overseer of time itself. So, yeah, you could say we have a lot of questions about "Doomsday."

Who knew that the "Loki" tagline of "For all time, always" would end up applying to Marvel's rollout of every single actor under the sun who will be part of "Avengers: Doomsday"? We probably should've seen that coming, in retrospect, just like we should've known that Tom Hiddleston's Loki would somehow get embroiled in whatever multiversal tricks that Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers have up their sleeves this time around. Few Marvel characters have escaped death with as much regularity as he has over the years, which included brushes with mortality in no less than "Thor," "Thor: The Dark World," "Thor: Ragnarok," "Avengers: Infinity War," and even both seasons of "Loki" (and probably more that I'm forgetting off the top of my head). But his latest Houdini act will be his best one yet, considering how his story comes to a satisfying close by the end of the season 2 finale of "Loki."

So, how can Loki wind up getting involved in the thick of the action of "Avengers: Doomsday" when he's supposed to be off by himself at the End of Time, doing his best impression of the Temporal Loom (the device built by the Time Variance Authority keeping the endlessly branching timelines in check) and literally holding together each strand by sheer force of will? The easiest solution is that "Doomsday" will take place in another universe altogether and allow for the presence of another Loki variant, which would certainly line up with the alleged "Doomsday" concept art leaked not too long ago. Another possibility is that the version of the character from "Loki" will be forced to abandon his post and help the remaining Avengers fight off an even greater threat. Then again, it's entirely plausible that we're not thinking outside the box enough and his return will take shape in another form entirely.

We have little choice but to wait for "Avengers: Doomsday" to finally give us all the clues when it hits theaters on May 1, 2026.