Marvel Trolls Fans With Loki Avengers: Endgame Poster

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Is Marvel Trolling Fans With Loki's Avengers: Endgame Poster?

By Renaldo Matadeen

Published Mar 27, 2019

Marvel Studios may be playing a game of misdirection with an Avengers: Endgame poster teasing Loki's potential resurrection.

With the release of 32 character posters, Marvel Studios officially kicked off the one month countdown to the premiere of Avengers: Endgame. And as we do, fans immediately began scouring the roster of Avengers and villains to see if there were any hidden clues regarding the MCU's mega-event film's story. Alas, all they really indicated was who died and who survived Thanos' Decimation in Avengers: Infinity War, but nothing more.

Well, that's almost true. There's one poster that caught our eyes, an image that, according to what we know, shouldn't be there at all -- unless the studio is trolling us with the potential resurrection of Tom Hiddleston's Loki.

The theme of the posters is to "Avenge The Fallen," with the survivors of Thanos' snap presented in color and the victims in black and white. All the victims are those who have been dusted by Thanos, with the exception of Gamora, who was sacrificed by the Mad Titan for the Soul Stone, and. of course, Loki, who was murdered by the villain in Infinity War's opening act. Gamora has been expected to be revived along with the heroes that died in the snap all along, of course, but... why is Loki here? The studio must be pulling our leg... right?

Even though she wasn't eviscerated by the snap, Gamora's death is intrinsically linked to the Soul Stone, so it makes sense to consider one of the fallen with the potential of resurrection. But Loki's death came before Thanos finished his Infinity Gauntlet and wiped out half the galaxy. As such, Loki really shouldn't be lumped in with these victims.

Now, ever since Infinity War arrived in theaters, fans have speculated that Loki, being the God of Mischief and whatnot, deceived us, that the trickster actually created a magical clone of himself to be choked out by the Mad Titan. Fans want to believe he may have survived and hid away somewhere beyond Thanos' reach and could make a surprise return in Endgame -- Loki does have a Disney+ live-action series in the works, after all. It's possible... but the more likely scenario is that, yes, Loki is dead.

Marvel is clearly toying with the emotions of those who are convinced Loki somehow survived that encounter with Thanos, egging them on to believe he'll be resurrected And perhaps he will be. After all, the film's plot all but guarantees time travel is at the core of the Avengers' plan to save the galaxy, so why not turn back the clock a little further and save Loki from his grim fate along with those who were dusted? Aside from that opening up a can of worms about why the Avengers don't go back and save everyone from everything at every possible point in time, of course.

No, Loki's presence in the posters is more likely a bit of a good-natured misdirect, one that's completely appropriate to the character as Loki really loves a good prank. Considering the Russo brothers love to misdirect the audience via fake and manipulated trailer footage, it stands to reason they'd do the same in posters as well.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau and Bradley Cooper, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Josh Brolin. The film arrives April 26.