Marvel Rivals Just Killed Loki Ahead of Season 10

I haven't written about Marvel Rivals in a few months, but apparently NetEase Games found a pretty effective way to get my attention again: it killed Loki.

Well, at least that's what it looks like.

Ahead of Season 10, Loki suddenly disappeared from most Marvel Rivals game modes. His character portrait was blacked out in the roster, while his status initially showed him as “Missing.” He was also made unplayable outside Competitive mode, according to reports.

That's a pretty strange thing to discover when you boot up a live-service game, and it immediately raised the question of whether this was a bug or something much more deliberate.

It turns out the latter seems to be true.

Marvel Rivals Streamer Kicked From $40K Tournament Over Black Widow Pick

A dispute over team composition escalated into a removal from the event, sparking debate over competitiveness, creator culture, and in-game toxicity.

TechloyEmmanuel Umahi

Gorr May Have Killed Loki

Loki's status was later changed from “Missing” to “Dead,” and a new trailer appears to show what happened: Gorr the God Butcher kills him. If that's really what NetEase is doing, Loki's disappearance suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Season 10 arrives on September 11, with Gorr serving as its new playable hero. As his name suggests, the character is a god hunter, making Loki a pretty obvious target.

NetEase has now confirmed Gorr as the only new hero arriving with Season 10, so some of the earlier speculation around other potential additions can be put aside.

I actually like the way this is being handled.

Rather than simply introducing Gorr as another playable character and moving on, NetEase appears to have made his arrival part of the existing story. His presence has already had consequences for the roster before Season 10 has even started.

I Don't Think Loki Is Gone for Good

I'm also not convinced we've seen the last of Loki. This is Marvel, after all. Characters die and come back so frequently that “dead” doesn't necessarily mean much anymore, particularly when you're talking about Loki.

The important distinction is that Loki appears to be dead within the current Marvel Rivals storyline. Whether that means NetEase intends to remove him permanently is another question entirely.

Loki's existing Marvel Rivals story already involves timelines, Yggdrasil and his attempts to conquer the timestream, so there are plenty of ways the game could eventually bring him back.