Before Thanos came in like a wrecking ball, destroying everything and everyone in his path (well, half of them), Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was widely considered to be the MCU’s greatest ever villain.

Much of that can be traced back to Hiddleston’s gleeful performance as the dark prince of Asgard, which took center stage during The Avengers back in 2012. Subsequent MCU films have toyed with Loki’s morality, culminating at the moment when he’s fighting alongside his half-brother Thor Odinson during the rip-roaring Ragnarok.

Alas, Loki’s journey came crashing to a halt during the opening moments of Avengers: Infinity War, when the enraged Thanos tossed him aside like a ragdoll. But it was almost so different from Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, as this frankly bizarre piece of MCU concept art from Charlie Wen (h/t ComicBook.com) attests:

Wacky Loki! My first sketch of him as someone a bit off for the first #thor There were other options but this is the looniest one so I wanted to share. As I think of his backstory and focused on the manipulative bent than his relationship with his bro Thor which develops later, I put more character depth in his final version. At this time I also wanted to play with the idea that Asgard had magic based on science beyond human tech understanding. I’ll post the final Thor I Lokis next!

It’s certainly… different. Indeed, it looks as if Loki has been hoking around in Rita Repulsa’s wardrobe, resulting in a costume that’s much more operatic and, frankly, ridiculous than the one worn by Tom Hiddleston all throughout his MCU career.

Chances are he’ll feature at some point in Avengers 4, given leaked set photos captured Hiddleston in his Phase One attire. That remains to be confirmed, of course, but we’ll find out one way or another on May 3rd, 2019, when the Infinity War sequel touches down in theaters.

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