Tom Hiddleston, Scarlet Johansson are being wishy-washy about MCU future
Death doesn't have to be the end in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so Tom Hiddleston and Scarlet Johansson are still in the mix
Superhero fans know death doesn’t stick. It’s a genre that loves to revive dead characters or introduce alternate universe doppelgangers or just reveal that the death was actually a big hoax all along. Separately, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on shaky ground lately, leading to rumors that Kevin Feige and co. might try to coax back the much beloved original Avengers. Genre-wise, the writers could make it work. But would the actors be willing to do it?
A perfect case study for this phenomenon is Tom Hiddleston, one of the longest-tenured actors in the franchise. He recently concluded the second season of Loki, and sounded pretty final about it on The Tonight Show. “It all comes full circle. It’s the conclusion to Seasons One and Two, and it’s also the conclusion to six films and 12 episodes and 14 years of my life. 14 years. I was 29 when I was cast, I’m 42 now. It’s been a journey,” he told Jimmy Fallon.
But even then, Hiddleston knows a conclusion in the MCU doesn’t mean things are totally concluded. “It’s so hard because I’ll be completely honest with you, Brandon, I have at least twice in my life said goodbye,” Hiddleston said to ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis. “I’ve written to Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito and Victoria Alonso and been like, ‘Thank you so much. It’s been like the role of a lifetime,’ and they’ve written notes back saying, ‘Come and see us anytime. You’re always part of the family. We’re always here. You’ve given us so much and tears have been shared.’ So I think I’d be unwise at this point to be conclusive about any of it.”
In other words: the door is still open. But Loki is a sometime villain, sometime sidekick—what about an actual Avenger? Scarlet Johansson, a.k.a. Black Widow, was asked on The Today Show if she would return to Marvel, and played it for laughs. “Like a loophole? I feel like that’s kind of the end, right? Like can you come back? Could it be a vampire version of the character? Cause I’m here for that, like a zombie version, maybe.” (Yeah, What If that happened?) Questioned by Al Roker specifically if she’d been approached to reprise the role, she replied “You really ask the hard questions. I feel like I have to tell you, but I actually don’t have to tell you, Al. I do not, but I want to so bad.” Per The Hollywood Reporter, she later added that Natasha’s resurrection “would be a real Marvel miracle. … It would be a marvel, but who knows? I’m not sure.”
As it happens, Loki’s second season provided a perfect excuse to bring back some deceased heroes. Spoiler alert—Loki mastered time-slipping, which gives him “some interesting moves he can make,” Hiddleston admitted on The Tonight Show. “Speaking for myself, Loki’s died a few times. I’m still here. I don’t know that death is necessarily … I mean death is—death is up for grabs, as an existential question! That’s all I can give you!”