Well... this changes everything. Well, not everything. But a lot of things.
Cast your mind back to 2012.
The Avengers aka Avengers Assemble has been released in cinemas, featuring a tiny-compared-to-Infinity War cast, but back then it seemed like the biggest deal ever.
While we now have finger-snapping genocidal maniacs, back then, the biggest bad guy that the guy had to face was Loki... someone that Thor had already defeated in an earlier movie all by himself.
If you look at Loki's colouring and general demeanour, he seemed a bit...
off, but that was probably due to falling from the Bifrost and spending time floating through space, crossing paths with Thanos, and given command of giant space worms.
However, it turns out that there was more to it than we realised, as
Marvel have recently updated their MCU website, and dropped the following nugget about the God Of Mischief:
"Arriving at the Sanctuary through a wormhole caused by the Bifrost, Loki met the Other, ruler of the ancient race of extraterrestrials the Chitauri, and Thanos. Offering the God of Mischief dominion over his brother’s favorite realm Earth, Thanos requested the Tesseract in return. Gifted with a Scepter that acted as a mind control device, Loki would be able to influence others. Unbeknownst to him, the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth."
So that brainwashing power that Loki used on Hawkeye and Erik Selvig was actually being used on Loki himself, but he had no idea.
It does explain how he went from mild irritant who just wanted the Asgard throne to wanting his giant space worms eating the entire population of Manhattan, plus why he thought it was a good idea to go toe-to-toe with Hulk.
However, whether or not he'll make an appearance in Avengers: Endgame is unknown (yes, we know what happened in Infinity War, but...
this?), but it does look like
Disney isn't quite done with the character yet.
