Loki season 2 deleted scene: why does Loki name Hercules?

More than a year after the Loki season 2 finale premiered, Marvel Studios released a deleted scene in which Loki name drops many different people who saw him as a problem. Some of those names are kind of controversial, and others possibly tease something for Loki's future, Thor's future and Hercules, which we believed at the time would all come together in Thor 5.

Loki season 2 (2023) starred Tom Hiddleston as Loki and Owen Wilson as Mobius, and its finale premiered November 9, 2023. Marvel Studios put the deleted scene online to promote a 4K Ultra HD steelbook Blu-ray release of the season. Don't worry if you didn't catch every name or reference in the scene. I'll go through them all.

Loki lists everyone who said he was the problem

The scene opens with Loki realizing he has forgotten some names. "There are so many people who said I was the problem," he says, then runs through a long list: Nick Fury, Erik Selvig, Bor, Laufey, Amora, Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis and Maria Hill. He admits he's going back a few years, but they're all there.

He then names Heimdall, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun, comes back to Heimdall a second time, and adds Absorbing Man. When Donald Blake comes up, the scene explains that Donald Blake is who Thor pretends to be when he goes to Earth. Last of all comes Hercules, another big guy who was a big problem for him.

Variety released the clip to the public as an exclusive, so Marvel gave the outlet the clip to release to everybody, and it has the most details on what we're hearing. Its article is titled "Loki Season 2 Deleted Scene Reveals Hercules's Relationship With the God of Mischief (Exclusive)." Variety describes the scene, part of the 4K UHD Blu-ray release, as Loki recalling just how many people "said I was a problem" while talking with his friend Mobius over slices of key lime pie.

The Asgard names: the Warriors Three, Laufey, Bor and Heimdall

Loki starts with Thor's compatriots on Asgard: Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral. Most of you will know them as the Warriors Three, as in Lady Sif and the Warriors Three. We've seen all of them interact with Loki before. Unfortunately, every one of them except Lady Sif died at the hands of Hela in Thor: Ragnarok.

He continues with Laufey, King of the Frost Giants and Loki's biological father, and then Bor, the father of Odin and Loki's adoptive grandfather. He names Heimdall twice, saying Heimdall was a big one. That makes sense to me. If Heimdall could see everything Loki was up to, he would definitely be a big one for Loki.

The Earth names: Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, Darcy Lewis, Nick Fury and Maria Hill

From his Asgard list, Loki moves to people from Earth. He lists Thor's girlfriend Jane Foster, although since she died in Thor: Love and Thunder, I'm not sure you could still call her his girlfriend. Most of us should know who Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is.

He then lists her scientific colleagues, Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis. After them come Nick Fury, who we should all know, and Maria Hill, who unfortunately is no longer with us.

Donald Blake in the comics versus the MCU

Then Loki lists Donald Blake, explaining him as who Thor pretends to be when he goes to Earth. I guess that's the MCU's take on it, but it's definitely an oversimplification of the character in the comics. There, the story plays out much like the first Thor film. Donald Blake was the human host Odin created for his son when he exiled him to Earth. Odin stripped Thor of his hammer Mjolnir and of his memory, then sent him to Earth as Donald Blake, a disabled Harvard University medical student.

Blake learned a lot of humility and took care of many people. He graduated medical school, became a physician and started his own practice. After 10 years, Odin planted a suggestion in Blake's mind to go to Norway on vacation. There he ran into a party of alien Kronans and fled into a cave, inside which Odin had placed Mjolnir in the form of a cane.

Long story short, Blake picked up the cane and smashed it against the wall, and it transformed him into Thor. Over the months that followed he started to remember everything, and eventually, after a few years, Odin told him everything that had happened.

So they kind of made that canon to the MCU, that when Thor is on Earth, he is apparently Donald Blake to everybody besides Foster and the people he knows. That might not technically be canon, because in Ragnarok we saw him taking pictures with people since he was so famous as Thor. But we did see him out in public a lot in the flashback scenes with Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder, so perhaps that's when he went under the Donald Blake identity. It's very interesting that they threw that in. They also deleted the scene, though, and one could see why, especially with the names that come next.

Amora and Absorbing Man saw Loki as a problem

Next is Amora, also known as Enchantress in Marvel Comics. She's definitely one of the bigger and more complicated Thor villains. Her relationship with Loki is complicated too, and the two have been allies in the past. Clearly, though, Loki is saying here that they've had issues with each other, or at least that Amora has had enough issues with him to say he was a problem.

For Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans there's Absorbing Man, who has a very different origin in the comics than he does in that show. In the comics, Loki is the reason he gains his powers. Loki poisons him with an elixir that gives him the ability to transform his body into the quality of anything he touches. He was an enemy of sorts to Thor and an ally of sorts to Loki.

So that's another ally who sees Loki as a problem. I find that interesting, because this takes place in Loki season 2, when Loki has changed a lot. It is fun to remember the old, mischievous Loki, the God of Mischief. We could probably have five more seasons of Loki going over what he did in the past, and I'd definitely be here for it.

Could the Hercules mention have set up Thor 5?

Last but not least, Loki talks about Hercules, who was teased in the post credits scene of Thor: Love and Thunder. You have to wonder if this was hinting at a setup for the next Thor film. Thor: Love and Thunder came out July 8, 2022, and the Loki season 2 finale came November 9, 2023, well over a year later. So this might have been put in specifically to set up the next chapter, where Thor would go up against Hercules.

The deleted scene tells us Loki and Hercules have crossed paths before, enough for Hercules to say Loki is a problem. Again, it's a deleted scene, so technically it's not canon. But if they were planning to make it canon to set up Hercules, Loki might be a reason Hercules is so prone to fighting Thor. Yes, his father Zeus sends him after Thor, but he's probably a lot more willing to go because of things Loki told him about Thor. Or maybe Thor ran into him in the past.

What's interesting is that in the comics, Thor and Hercules are friends, and Hercules is good. That's why many people think that at some point in the next Thor film, Hercules and Thor will fight, something will happen, and the two will end up on the same team.

However, when this scene came out we hadn't heard anything about Thor 5 in a long time. Marvel Studios had revealed most of the movies it planned through to the end of the Multiverse Saga, leaving only one or two spots for another film, and we believed that spot would go to Doctor Strange 3, but we'd have to wait and see on that.