10 Doomed Movie Characters Saved By Reshoots

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) "dies" in Thor: The Dark World after being mortally wounded by Algrim (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), though of course the movie's ending pulls an amusing 180 by revealing that Loki is alive and well and has been impersonating his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) on Asgard's throne.

While this seems like it was always the intended plan, originally Loki's death was going to be permanent, and there was no intent during principal photography for it to be a fake-out from the Trickster God. Tom Hiddleston said:

"[Loki's death] was part of the original pitch and in test screenings, the audience didn't accept it. They said, you know 'He's obviously coming back. That didn't really happen.' And there was a very strange and almost unanimous resistance to it. They decided that wasn't the end."

Considering that Loki was one of the MCU's early breakout characters, it absolutely made sense that test audiences neither liked nor believed his death.

It's well-documented that The Dark World underwent extensive reshoots to lighten its tone, and part of this was evidently filming a quick closing stinger which assured the audience Loki would be back.

As much as the MCU has a real stakes problem where death is concerned, this was definitely a smart call given Hiddleston's brilliance in the role.

Yet as Loki's demise in Avengers: Infinity War and quasi-resurrection in his own TV series confirm, death really remains a mere inconvenience in the MCU.