Did Loki Actually Die in ‘Infinity War’? Here’s What Happened

Loki appeared in numerous MCU projects, and as such, he played a vital part in the events leading up to the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ as well as in Thor’s character development. One thing that hit Thor on a fundamental level was the fact that he witnessed his own adoptive brother brutally killed by the Mad Titan Thanos. Fans thought that this was it for the God of Mischief until he resurfaced in his own Disney+ show titled ‘Loki.’ This sequence of events is a bit confusing if we’re not on the same page about the meaning of multiverse in MCU, so let’s discuss: Did Loki actually die in the MCU? 

Loki did die in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and the version we’re following in ‘Loki’ is not the same variant we’ve been following since his first appearance in ‘Thor.’ Thanos killed Loki due to his betrayal, and that was it for the mainline MCU variant. In ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ a new variant of Loki resurfaced during the Time Heist that created the Nexus Event for which the TVA arrested him. Both Loki variants had almost the same history, but Thanos never killed the latter Time Heist variant of Loki. 

Now that we’ve covered what really went down with Loki, we need to explain his death, the Time Heist, Nexus Events, and ultimately, how the hell Loki is still alive in the MCU. If you’re interested in this and more, stay with us and keep reading! 

Loki made a deal with Thanos that will ultimately cost him his life

Loki and Thor are adoptive brothers, meaning both were vying for the throne of Asgard, even if it was never meant to go to Loki due to his Frost Giant nature. Loki had a hard time dealing with this and felt that his adoptive family never gave him the proper credit and respect that he deserved. This is what made him turn on them on more occasions than we can count. 

Despite everything, Thor was always ready to jump in Loki’s defense. Still, following the events of ‘Thor,’ in which Loki was ready to “hand the keys” of Asgard to Frost Giants to get his petty satisfaction, he fought with Thor and Odin. Eventually, he ended up in a strange part of the Universe while traveling through a wormhole. 

This is where Loki met The Other and made a deal with the Mad Titan Thanos. Loki was supposed to steal the Tesseract in exchange for the Chitauri army that was supposed to give him an edge over Asgardians, and he should, in theory, be able to conquer humanity with it.

To gain access to the Tesseract more easily, Thanos gave Loki a special scepter that actually housed the Mind Stone. The Mind Stone worked in the background, corrupting and twisting Loki’s mind, causing needless hate inside him toward his brother and humanity as a whole. Loki thinks about double-crossing Thanos, but the Chitauri and The Other warn him that if he decides to abandon Thanos at this point, there will be no place in the Universe to hide. 

Not to recount the whole story, but the Avengers eventually apprehended Loki during the ‘The Avengers’ movie. He was caught during the Battle of New York and taken to Asgard, only to be sentenced to prison for a very long time. 

The deal with Thanos was all but forgotten, and plenty of things happened in the meantime, including the destruction of Asgard and Loki and Thor becoming allies once again, well, sort of allies.

Original Loki was killed during the events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ 

Fast forward a couple of movies, and we arrive at the events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’ Thor and Loki, as well as the Asgardian survivors, are aboard the Statesman on the course to reach Earth. They are soon intercepted by a massive ship that belongs to Thanos. The Mad Titan wastes no time and kills half of the ship while leaving the other half alive. Loki was among the “lucky” survivors for a good reason. 

Remember how Loki made a deal with Thanos? Well, Thanos now came to collect his Tesseract, which, to Thor’s great disappointment, Loki had on himself. Thanos demanded the Tesseract, and Loki tried to gamble by fooling Thanos and ultimately failing. Thanos was unfazed by these petty attempts. He grabbed Loki’s neck in his oversized fists and crushed his neck. Loki’s corpse fell to Thor’s knees, and Thanos even mocked the God of Thunder, remarking on the fact that Loki won’t be able to be resurrected this time.

The alternate variant of Loki resurfaced during ‘Avengers: Endgame’ 

Following the events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ we know that Thanos succeeded in his attempts to fetch all Infinity Stones, and he managed to snap away half of all life in the Universe. We also know that he destroyed all Infinity Stones, so there was functionally no way for them to reverse the Snap except through time travel.

During the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ we know that the Avengers went through an elaborate Time Heist to obtain the Infinity Stones. They had to travel to an exact time frame and place to retrieve them, during which they obtained them the first time. This leads us to the Battle of New York when Loki is apprehended and taken into custody with the Tesseract. 

Now we’re talking about an altogether different, younger version of Loki since the dead Loki is not automatically resurrected by Avengers traveling back in time. This time around, however, this variant of Loki was not defeated and arrested by the Avengers; he used the Tesseract and portalled himself to the desert, and since the events weren’t supposed to go like this, he created the so-called Nexus Event for which the TV arrested him, these are of course, the events that transpire during the first season of ‘Loki’ series.

Even though the older variant of Loki is dead and gone within the MCU, his younger variant, the one created during the Time Heist, managed to survive because he changed the natural course of events that were supposed to happen. 

Gamora went through the same thing, too. She was killed during ‘Avengers: Infinity War,’ but her younger variant from the Time Heist found herself in the main timeline during the Time Heist, and this is how she was seen during the events of ‘Endgame’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.’ 

To summarize everything, the original Loki died, and Thanos killed him. A younger variant of Loki is alive in the MCU because it’s not the same Loki. It’s Loki from a different timeline, technically not connected to the older dead Loki at all. 

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