‘Thor: The Dark World’ Should Have Explored Loki’s Relationship With Thanos
In a franchise as vast as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even the most die-hard fans of the massively successful superhero franchise will have a few complaints.
While Thor remains one of the most beloved superheroes in the universe, his first two solo movies are among the most poorly-reviewed by both the fans and critics alike.
However, one fan theory shows that there’s more to be seen but that the makers could have added one particular change that would have paid off in both Infinity War and Endgame.
Thor’s on-screen journey
Thor was one of the first characters to get a solo treatment in the MCU during the days where it was still finding its footing. Introduced through Moljnir in a post-credit sequence, Thor marked a change in the MCU that had not yet been seen before. While films like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk were not banking on documentary-like realism, they remained somewhat grounded in a reality that made sense, albeit with several science fiction elements.
However, Thor is not a grounded hero. He is a Norse god from the planet of Asgard who has been alive for several centuries and holds a power unseen by even the strongest among earth’s mightiest heroes. However, when it came to the first two solo movies, many did not think that the makes highlighted this enough.
Although Thor and Thor: The Dark World spent lots of time on Asgard and in intergalactic locations, the main action was still relegated to earth. This made it seem like a failed attempt to continue what happened in Iron Man and Hulk. However, when dealing with an intergalactic god like Thor, fans do not want to see earth-based action. They want to be taken to a world away from Asgard.
Travis Czap of CBR posited one way that this could have been corrected.
Improving on ‘The Dark World’
Despite some poor reviews, Thor had one major thing going for it. Its stars lit up the screen. One of the first two films’ major selling points is the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth’s Thor and Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Loki has served as a wish-washy presence in the MCU since his introduction in the first Thor movie, but his connection to the universe’s greatest villain, Thanos, was never explored as profoundly as fans would like.
Czap posits that the often killed and unkilled Loki could have set forth significant events that were never quite established in the current timeline. Loki’s constant move from good to bad is often played for laughs, but we are never quite given a concrete explanation about his connection to Thanos. Whether in a post-credit scene or the final act, Czap posits that Loki could have met the god-like warlord earlier and set off the events earlier than the universe portrays.
However, what the people at Disney did with Thor may have been the right move, too, as Thor: Ragnarok is one of the most beloved films in the entire MCU, and having Loki set off some events may have affected its quality, as well.
Thor rebounds
With Taika Waititi brought on to fix the franchise with Thor: Ragnarok, audiences finally got the intergalactic adventure that they craved in the first two movies. Gone were boring subplots about Thor’s love life and his impact on the earth, and it was a movie that let us see a humbled Thor thrive in a setting more like its home. The film was hilarious, heart-pounding, and entertaining to nearly everyone who saw it.
However, one could argue that while this fix was necessary for the time, it’s further proof that Marvel should have done a film like this from the get-go. By having Loki’s connection to Thanos spread through multiple movies, audiences could have gotten a sneak peek at what happened behind the scenes earlier on.
