There’s a lot going on in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Tons of the Hulk, you know, Hulking out. A cute Archie reference. Uh, Vision! But, sadly, one character beloved by Marvel fans doesn’t make an appearance — Loki! There’s plenty of his scepter and flashes of Asgard, but Thor’s evil bro is nowhere to be seen in Age of Ultron. Turns out that wasn’t always the plan. Speaking to MTV, director Joss Whedon confirmed that Tom Hiddleston did film some scenes for the film, but they ultimately got cut because the Marvel Cinematic Universe is way too overpopulated:
“We did shoot something, but it didn’t play. The movie has so much. It’s so filled. We didn’t want it to feel overstuffed. I really wanted to have Loki in it, but I understood the decision that there were now too many voices in the chorus.â€
Now, months after the film’s release, Hiddleston spoke to Digital Spy and elaborated on the scrapped Loki scene. As it turns out, he had originally appeared in Thor’s dream sequence, until test audiences got the wrong idea. “In test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki’s role, so they thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron,†the actor explained. “It was actually imbalancing people’s expectations.â€Â Don’t worry, though, Loki will (hopefully) don those adorable horns once again in Thor: Ragnarok (a.k.a. Thor 3). It burns you to have come so close, doesn’t it?