Vikings and Norse mythology have become hot-ticket items in popular culture over the last few years. Games like God of War (2018), Assassin's Creed Valhalla, as well as indies including Valheim and the upcoming Tribes of Midgard tackle this mythology, and it's likely these can all draw some common ancestry to Thor becoming a mainstay in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the burgeoning popularity of the MCU came numerous video games from mobile brawler Marvel Realm of Champions to the ARPG Marvel's Avengers.

While Marvel's Avengers had a rocky start, developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix have been working to improve the game's reputation. They revealed an updated Marvel's Avengers roadmap last month with details on endgame content, as well as expansions which have yet to launch including War for Wakanda; centered around Marvel Comics hero Black Panther. A few other expansions have been released up to this point, including March's Operation: Hawkeye Future Imperfect. Many of these include ties to the MCU, which opens up the perfect opportunity to slip in content based on the Disney+ series Loki.

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The baseline Marvel's Avengers canon tells its own story based on the same comic book source material that laid the groundwork for the MCU. However, parallels between the two were obvious early on, with some fans even going so far as to justify the comparisons by deepfaking MCU actors into Marvel's Avengers.

That being said, connections between the two takes on the Marvel universe have only become more intertwined as Marvel's Avengers grows. Many characters, including Captain America, have received MCU-themed skins based on their appearances in films like 2019's Avengers: Endgame. Content surrounding Black Widow has gone a step further, with Marvel's Avengers getting an entire expansion called Red Room Takeover themed around her past as well as skins based on Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of the character. Both are active in-game now, celebrating the release of the MCU film Black Widow.

Given the game's willingness to pay homage to the MCU and advertise its ongoing endeavors, it would also make sense for Marvel's Avengers to draw upon the unique popularity of the latest, currently ongoing Disney+ television series Loki. This may not be part of the game's roadmap, but it could easily influence updates in other ways.

Though the trickster god Loki from Norse mythology dates back centuries, the Mighty Thor of Marvel Comics first encountered his brother and archnemesis Loki Laufeyson in Larry Lieber and Stan Lee's Journey Into Mystery #85, published in October 1962. The comic character came to the silver screen in 2011's Thor and quickly became a fan-favorite thanks to his charismatic portrayal by Tom Hiddleston. His subsequent appearances included Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), though he also served as the primary antagonist in The Avengers (2012) and has been referenced various times in the interconnected MCU.

Hiddleston's arc officially "ended" in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, wherein Loki is killed by the Mad Titan, Thanos, after witnessing the desolation of Asgard's remaining population following Ragnarok. However, the life of the character technically doesn't end there. Disney put together three live-action MCU television series to run on its streaming service Disney+, with Loki premiering in June 2021 following Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This story follows a variant of the "true" Loki who escapes with an artifact known as the Tesseract during a portion of Avengers: Endgame in which multiple heroes travel back in time to 2012 New York and re-experience events from The Avengers.

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This Loki variant is captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), which monitors all of time and space to ensure events on the "Sacred Timeline" go as planned, and recruited by Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) to stop a villain attempting to bring back a supposedly chaotic multiverse. As of this writing only five episodes of Loki have been released, with the sixth and final episode scheduled to air on Disney+ Tuesday, July 13. Even without spoiling the series in the middle of its run, suffice to say Hiddleston's pre-established popularity as Loki and the show's mix of absurdist visual design with philosophical themes have captured many peoples' attentions.

The popularity of the show has bled into video games already, as Loki cosmetics were added to Fortnite Crew last month. Even if he isn't a playable character in Marvel's Avengers, he does appear in a substantial enough capacity that content could be added or retrofitted to dovetail with the Disney+ series.

In a Marvel's Avengers mission set called The Mighty Thor, the titular god of thunder has to stop a cult called the Woken of Asgard in Scandinavia. This cult was supposedly started by Thor in an attempt to bring members of AIM to Asgard, but in truth Loki merely disguised himself as Thor in order to create a device that would destroy the planet. This plot is thwarted by the Avengers, without Loki making his presence known.

With only two big expansions remaining for Marvel's Avengers, scheduled through August, it's unlikely Loki will play a bigger role. However, he could theoretically appear as part of the plotlines in the remaining expansions, or just wind up roaming the world in some capacity. That's not to mention the chance that Loki may get more attention in unannounced content, as it seems likely Square Enix wants to continue its foray into Marvel canon considering Eidos Montreal's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.

If Loki does get more play in Marvel's Avengers, the success of Loki on Disney+ would undoubtedly be a driving force behind the decision, and thus it would only make sense to add cosmetics based on Tom Hiddleston's portrayal similar to characters like Captain America and Black Widow. What future plotlines involving the character could include remains to be seen, but there are over 50 years of comic books to draw from, so Crystal Dynamics is sure to come up with something unique.

Marvel's Avengers is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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