Thanos May Have Used Loki For A Different Purpose In First Avengers Film

Poor Loki. It has recently been confirmed that the God of Mischief was mind-controlled to take the Tesseract in the first Avengers movie. Now it looks like Thanos had another reason to use Odin's adopted son in his quest for the Infinity Stones.

In Avengers, Thanos ordered the Chitauri to aid Loki in procuring the Space Stone. So why not just get the Chitauri to finish the job? The new Marvel theory posted on Reddit suggests that the Mad Titan needed the God of Mischief for a different purpose that had little to do with the Tesseract.

"Thanos wants the Infinity Stones and he knew that Odin and his kids are the greatest threat against his plans. He was biding his time, looking for an opportune moment to strike in order to make sure they wouldn't get in his way," the post reads.

"He must have been keeping tabs on how the Asgardian royal family was doing, looking for weaknesses he could capitalize on. So Thanos used the Asgardians themselves in order to make an attempt at getting the Tesseract/Space Stone. He used Loki, knowing that neither Odin nor Thor would have the heart to kill him. But it didn't go so smoothly, because the Avengers managed to subdue Loki and then take the Space Stone back to Asgard instead of letting Loki take it to Thanos."

The Mad Titan may have also been counting on the possibility that Loki would take the Tesseract before Asgard was destroyed. Although he realized that Thor would still be strong enough to defeat him, Thanos fixed this problem by killing Loki and hopefully leaving the Odinson devastated.

It's certainly a plausible theory since Thanos didn't seem too upset about Loki's capture in the first Avengers film. Unfortunately, it also means that Loki spent most of his life being manipulated by the Mad Titan.

Thanos returns in Avengers: Endgame, which premieres on April 26, 2019.

Related: Marvel Confirms That Loki Was Mind Controlled During First Avengers Movie