Way back in July (has it really been almost a month since Comic-Con??), Marvel announced twelve upcoming TV shows and movies as the MCU enters Phase 4. Two of those, to arrive in 2021, are about the Asgardians: the first, Loki, gives everyone’s favorite trickster a whole TV show and an entire Disney+ budget to screw with, while the second, Thor: Love and Thunder, unites Taika Waititi with Natalie Portman as Thor.
This being the MCU and all, we can pretty much count on the plot of Loki having a direct effect on what happens in Love and Thunder. And according to a new report by Fandom Wire, it may involve more time-traveling shenanigans by the God of Mischief.
(Spoilers ahead for Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame, and possibly for Loki and Thor: Love and Thunder.)
Before we move on, it’s important to note that the Fandom Wire post relies entirely on a nameless source and production logline “provided” to the outlet, both unconfirmed by Marvel, so you should take the report with a huge grain of salt. If this turns out to be the case, though, here’s what Loki will look like:
- The plot “follows Loki after the events in Avengers: Endgame as the trickster uses the power of the Tesseract to travel throughout human history and change historical events,” according to the unconfirmed production logline.
- This will end with Loki using the Tesseract to travel through the multiverse and back to the main timeline for Thor: Love and Thunder, according to an unnamed source.
So how does this impact the events of Love and Thunder? According to Fandom Wire‘s source, Loki will bring Thor’s hammer–Mjolnir–back to the main timeline, setting it up for Natalie Portman as Jane-turned-Thor to use. (As the outlet noted, Taika Waititi handed Mjolnir to the actress on-stage as part of her casting announcement during the MCU news drop at Comic-Con.)
While all of this is just speculation until Marvel confirms it, certain clues dropped at previous Disney events suggest it’s not too far off from what’s going on behind the scenes. According to Comic Book‘s coverage of Disney’s “Investor Day” meeting last April, official Loki concept art shows Loki walking around in front of a movie theater announcing Jaws, which had its premiere back in 1975. Not only does this suggest Loki will be traveling to 1975 at some point, but it also confirms previous rumors (linked to unnamed sources who spoke to the Hollywood Reporter) of the time-travel/multiple timelines plot mentioned in the Fandom Wire article.
These aren’t the only new details connecting the disparate parts of Phase 4. Last week, We Got This Covered found a photo of Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky, walking around in Berlin while wearing a Black Widow hat, which suggests the possibility of a Winter Soldier cameo in the upcoming Black Widow prequel. Meanwhile, Inverse reports that the Doctor Strange sequel–Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness–will be connected to the upcoming WandaVision series on Disney+.
