10 Hyped Movie Villains Who Turned Out To Be Just Henchmen

The hype for Marvel's original Avengers movie was absolutely infectious; it was set to be a cinematic crossover event unlike any we'd seen before.

And while everyone was pumped to see Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Thor and Hawkeye team up for the first time on the big screen, the return of fan-favourite Loki - played with genuine glee by Tom Hiddleston - was high up on the long, long list of things to be excited for.

Naturally, the whole project was shrouded in secrecy, and since the marketing wisely focused on the dynamics between the heroes, nobody really knew what to expect from the film's villain - other than that the mysterious blue Tesseract would be a key factor.

Because of this, Loki's Earth-domineering scheme to harness the power of the blue cube was enjoyable and surprising, but there was an even bigger surprise lying in wait: the identity of the person who was really responsible for all this.

Just like Ronan The Accuser, Loki had actually been hired by Thanos to retrieve an Infinity Stone (the Space Stone), and in return, the Mad Titan gave Loki access to his army of Chitauri cannon fodder. Ahem, Chitauri soldiers.

The movie's Loki-versus-Avengers battle would never have happened without Thanos pulling the strings and providing Loki with a way to annihilate the Earth, and this effectively turned the conflicted Asgardian into a disposable pawn in Thanos' larger game.