Marvel’s Best TV Show Completely Forgot Loki’s Origin Story (& I Can Prove It)

Published Sep 30, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera

Loki is a fan-favorite Marvel character for a reason. For one, in the MCU, he's played by Tom Hiddleston, who is always guaranteed to win audiences over, although that's arguably especially true in his depiction of the God of Mischief. In addition to that, though, Loki is the type of complex character that just doesn't come around all that often. He begins as a somewhat sympathetic character in Thor, although by The Avengers, he's an out-and-out villain. That became more complicated with time, although he never really gave up his tricks.

In fact, even Loki's (actual) death in Avengers: Infinity War came about because he was trying to pull a trick, although this one was for the better, against Thanos. Yet, at that point, Loki was more of an anti-hero, if not just a hero. That also seemed to be the end of his story, but the Time Heist in Avengers: Endgame gave him the chance for a new life—literally—as he became a variant and was brought into the TVA in the Loki series. As that was The Avengers Loki, he was back to being a clear villain.

Throughout the Loki show, however, Loki's character development was arguably so much better even than that of his arc throughout the Thor and Avengers movies. After all, it's in this show that he becomes the God of Stories, but he also actually fully begins to try and improve upon his various flaws. Given that significance, it's only all the more surprising that the Loki series seems to have forgotten one very critical aspect of this character's history. Namely, Loki's origin story is consistently overlooked, if not outright forgotten.

Magic Doesn't Work In The TVA (So Why Wasn't Loki Blue?)

Just as Loki is seen by many fans as one of the best Marvel characters, the Loki series is largely considered one of the MCU's best TV shows, if not the single best (perhaps competing only with WandaVision for that title). Yet, that doesn't mean the show is perfect; no show is. On the contrary, among the show's issues is the fact that it consistently skirts a more substantial conversation about Loki's origins as a Frost Giant. As Thor already revealed, Loki was taken by Odin as a baby, and he only learned about his biological parentage in adulthood.

Yes, Loki briefly refers to Loki being adopted at various points, as the MCU has done, often for a joke, over the years. Yet, there are some major questions left unanswered when it comes to that background. For one, magic doesn't work in the TVA, which begs the question: Why isn't Loki blue throughout his time there? Sure, one could argue that the magic Odin used on Loki was a full transformation spell rather than just an illusion, and maybe that holds up, but the show makes no effort to address that whatsoever.

Along those same lines, Loki and Sylvie have a conversation about the two of them being adopted, which suggests that Sylvie is also a Frost Giant, but that, too, is never stated. Even if this wasn't something that the show's creators literally forgot, it is something that the narrative itself neglects at several key points. In fact, it may be the latter that is the even more glaring absence of the two, as this would have been Loki's only time in his entire existence to speak with someone who understood how he felt, and he passed on it.

Loki's Origin Story Has Been Largely Neglected, But It's Actually So Important

In truth, Loki is far from the only MCU project that generally overlooks the significance of Loki's backstory. As mentioned, if anything, this history has mostly been played for a joke, with Thor distancing himself from Loki's actions in The Avengers by saying that he is adopted and Loki mirroring that in Thor: Ragnarok by telling the Grandmaster that he's Thor's adopted brother. In reality, though, this backstory has so much significance for Loki's character overall, and it deserves to be handled with more gravity than it has been thus far.

The fact that Loki felt less loved, less valid, and simply just lesser than because of his origins is a defining aspect of his character; it makes many of his otherwise frankly rather awful behaviors make a lot more sense, especially when thinking about The Avengers. Even in thinking about his full circle ending in Loki, though, the notion of Loki's 'birthright,' as he put it in Thor, has continued to shape his character and really his overall destiny as well. It's a shame that Loki didn't dive deeper into this concept, as it was the perfect opportunity to do so.