Loki's Trailer Gag Makes Thor's MCU Trust Mistakes Even Worse
The trailer for Loki highlights the titular character's penchant for backstabbing people, making Thor look bad for repeatedly falling for his schemes. Marvel Studios is able to go ahead with Phase 4 thanks to their new small screen lineup with Disney+. After kicking things off with WandaVision, followed by the ongoing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the MCU will fully dive into the concept of the multiverse through the Tom Hiddleston-led series, Loki.
Avengers: Endgame subtly set up the events of the upcoming series when their mission to secure the Tesseract during the New York leg of the time heist went wrong. Following a kerfuffle, the God of Mischief then snatched the Infinity Stone and transported to an unknown destination, making a branched timeline in the MCU — this is where the events of his show will take place. In Loki, the adopted Asgardian prince will travel through different points of time to be an unlikely factor in some of history's most prominent events and based on its trailer, it will be through a forced partnership between him and the Time Variance Authority (TVA).
Throughout Loki's new adventures, he will be working closely with Mobius M. Mobius, a member of the TVA who started in a junior management position and rose through the ranks — at least in the comics. In Marvel Studios' interpretation, he will be the one directly in charge of the God of Mischief's operations for the organization. During one of their interesting conversations in the trailer, Loki assures Mobius to trust him, but knowing everything he's done, the TVA operative replied "I have studied almost every moment of your entire life. You've literally stabbed people in the back like 50 times." Considering that the trickster spent most of his life thus far with Thor, this line somehow feels like a jab at the God of Thunder for repeatedly trusting his brother despite the fact that he'd time and again proved himself to be deceitful.
While Loki's penchant for scamming others, particularly Thor, was somewhat rooted in Odin's parenting style, which consistently pitted them against each other, it was on the God of Thunder to somehow realize early on that his adopted brother could rarely be trusted. This doesn't mean that he should've long cut ties with Loki, but he should've at least learned along the way to not be easily gullible where the God of Mischief was concerned. In hindsight, this could be one of the reasons why Loki was the standout character from the Thor franchise — he was fun to watch and clever, while Thor, as his usual victim, sometimes looked almost pitiful against him. This might have worked for Loki, but not for the God of Thunder; for years, Marvel Studios struggled with how to tackle the character until Taika Waititi came and recognized this problem. This is the reason why he made it a priority to present Thor as every bit as interesting as Loki in Thor: Ragnarok.
For now, the brothers will have to move forward in the franchise separately. It's worth noting that Loki will feature the 2012 version of the character, which means he's yet to be redeemed and at his peak trickster years; meanwhile, his prime MCU iteration is dead, killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Still, there's always a possibility that their paths will merge again, especially with the multiverse coming together, and perhaps for Loki to further make amends for his scheming ways.