The Avengers’ Biggest Original Story Cut Made Sure Loki Could Become A Hero Years Later

Summary

• Loki's redemption arc in the MCU was made possible by a specific cut to the original story of The Avengers, which featured him as a villain.
• Loki's indirect responsibility for the deaths in the Battle of New York, which were technically caused by the Chitauri, allowed for his redemption and transformation into an iconic MCU hero.
• Marvel's decision to change the Chitauri's backstory and remove their alliance with Nazis was crucial in ensuring that Loki's character could be redeemed and move past his past sins.

Now that Loki season 2 has come to a satisfying conclusion more than a decade after his MCU debut, it is safe to say that Loki experienced the biggest redemption arc in MCU movie history - but this was only facilitated thanks to a specific cut to the original story of The Avengers. For its part, The Avengers featured Loki at his most villainous, something which subsequent MCU movies, then Loki as part of a different timeline, went to great lengths to rectify. According to a revelation mentioned in The Art of Marvel's The Avengers, however, Loki was almost beyond redemption.
Though it was quite hard to reconcile the fact that Loki was responsible for the deaths of 74 civilians in the Battle of New York with his genesis as a bona fide hero within Loki, how the MCU Disney+ series handled his redemption was enough to secure Loki as one of the most iconic MCU heroes regardless. Part of this can be explained away by his indirect responsibility for said deaths, which were technically at the hands of the Chitauri and their cataclysmic invasion of New York. Had Marvel's creative team followed the comic book run that inspired them to the letter, however, things would have been wildly different.