Did Loki plan the Chitauri invasion to unite the Avengers? As a theory, it's wild, but the God of Chaos has done more for less. In 2021's The Avengers, Loki Laufeyson, angry that Thor had taken the throne Loki thought was rightfully his, invaded Earth with a massive army of Chitauri invaders. At the time, the invasion served a two-way purpose. Loki invaded Earth with the promise he would retrieve the Space Stone, otherwise known as the Tesseract, for Thanos, giving him one more Infinity Stone to add to his collection. In return, Thanos granted Loki an army to conquer Earth, a.k.a. Midgard, and become - as Loki saw it, anyway - its deserving new ruler... and it helped that it just so happened to be his hated brother Thor's most beloved planet.
Loki's invasion of Earth, and the climactic Battle of New York, was the turning point for literally everything that followed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the next seven years, up to and including Avengers: Endgame. Loki's invasion moved at least two of the Infinity Stones: The Space Stone in the Tesseract ended up back in Asgard, eventually leading to a crucial scene of Thanos killing Loki to acquire it in Avengers: Infinity War. Meanwhile, the Mind Stone in Loki's scepter ended up in Avengers custody and was eventually used to create Vision. The Battle of New York introduced the planet to the concept of alien invasion, which was what set Tony Stark down his obsessive path of defending the Earth no matter the moral cost. And it was the crucible that forced the Avengers to act as a team for the first time rather than a disparate group of bickering superheroes. One could argue it was Loki, not Thanos, who was really the catalyst for most of the major developments in the MCU.
And yet, it's entirely possible that Loki's invasion of Earth with his Chitauri army had an even greater impact on the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe than was previously known. Loki has always been the wild card of the MCU, turning good right when he seemed irredeemable, and breaking bad right when it seemed he'd finally been reformed. Loki's very nature is chaos - one of the universe's most powerful, unpredictable forces. He's the embodiment of entropy, and entropy often strikes where one least expects it.
During the events of Avengers: Endgame, the pre-redemption 2012 version of Loki snatched the Tesseract and teleported away to another part of the universe, escaping S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. As the Loki series trailer shows, however, he ends up in the custody of the Time Variance Authority, the interworld watchdog agency tasked with keeping alternate realities and alternate timelines straight. Whatever the terms are, the trailer shows the TVA cutting some sort of deal with Loki that appears to be an Agent of Asgard-esque story of Loki doing jobs for them in exchange for something that's not yet been revealed.
The trailer also shows something else quite interesting: A shot of Loki in TVA garb, standing in the ruins of a decimated New York City. Clearly, this was a timeline in which Thanos (or perhaps Loki himself) had won without the Avengers to stop him. This sets up two potential ways for the Chitauri invasion to be deliberately planned by Loki: The TVA may assign it to Loki as his mission, showing him a future only he can stop; or Loki sees that other timeline in the course of his work for the TVA and vows to stop it from happening. Either version would work if it were to be revealed it was actually a later version of Loki with TVA experience who invaded New York in 2012. After all, who else in the entire universe has the ability to annoy and manipulate an entire group of superheroes into becoming a team just to shut him up and get him off their planet?
For his entire MCU run to date, Loki's brilliance and powers have been severely undercut. Part of this is due to narrative necessity: he's been the villain, so he had to lose. He's not the titular character, so he had to be a support role. Still, in the comics Loki has long been one of the most brilliant strategists in the Marvel universe, and that version of Loki is one that has not yet been portrayed in live-action. MCU Loki has been a survivor and a fast-talker, but not a master strategist. It's a persistent flaw that has run contradictory to the character. Loki playing the long long game and deliberately planning the Chitauri invasion to eventually thwart Thanos, however, is something that befits his character completely.
Take Loki's accomplishments at face value, and he appears to be a complete failure. He failed to get the Space Stone for Thanos. He failed to hang onto the Mind Stone. He failed to conquer Earth. Outside of the first Thor movie and his brief appearance in Infinity War, he spends at least part of every single movie either handcuffed, gagged, or imprisoned – and in The Avengers, he managed all three. He dies not once, not twice, but three times, with his last, seemingly permanent death coming about in frankly the most idiotic and obvious way possible - not at all Loki's style. For a character the Avengers view with fear and respect, he's honestly rather inept.
If Loki's larger arc in the MCU is reframed not as him constantly trying to gain power, however, but as him simply trying to screw things up for Thanos just enough to slow the Mad Titan down while not revealing his hand, suddenly, it makes sense. In that context, Loki was directly responsible for keeping three different Infinity Stones away from Thanos for longer than they otherwise would have: The Mind Stone, the Space Stone, and the Reality Stone. He prodded the Avengers to finally get it together and unify as a team. And, ultimately, he provided his powerful brother with a reason to aim his vengeance directly at Thanos. As to why Loki never revealed the plan to the Avengers, or even to his brother, that's simple: He knew they'd never buy that Loki was actually trying to help. Not even his own brother trusts him, and Loki is fully aware of it - he is, after all, the Prince of Lies. But there's one character in the MCU who, if not exactly trusting of Loki, is at least is powerful enough to have cottoned on to Loki's plan: Doctor Strange.
The first meeting between Loki and Doctor Strange took place in Thor: Ragnarok when the Asgardian brothers were searching for their missing father. It wasn't exactly a friendly meeting, with the master magician trapping the god of mischief in a pocket dimension for half an hour and Loki subsequently trying to stab Strange for his troubles. Strange revealed to Thor he'd been keeping an eye on his adopted brother as Loki was considered an active potential threat to Earth - a comment that appeared to be a reference to Loki having attempted to invade New York only five years prior. Still, he never had to make a move on Loki, who, after being hellbent on conquering all of Earth, was suddenly content to rule the kingdom of Asgard, and not even as himself, just a few years later.
It's possible that Doctor Strange hadn't been referring to what Loki had done in the past, however, but what Loki might do in the future. Avengers: Infinity War revealed that Doctor Strange looked into 14,000,605 different timeline possibilities and there was only one in which the Avengers won. At the time, everyone assumed Strange's one timeline revolved specifically around the Avengers' time heist and Tony Stark sacrificing himself. Yet, Strange has shown himself to be a character who keeps his cards close to his chest, his plan never fully revealed. It's entirely possible his dip into the alternate timelines also involved scanning for the version of Loki who is working for the TVA and it's that version of Loki Strange has been keeping a watchful eye on over the years, observing what the God of Mischief has been doing across multiple timelines and realities.
Admittedly, it's a large leap to make. It's certain it has never been Marvel's master plan for Loki all along, considering he was originally supposed to have died for real in Thor: The Dark World before test audience reactions prompted Marvel to write in the post-credits scene showing Loki had taken over Asgard in his father's form. But Marvel has a long history of writing stories to retroactively address things that later became narrative inconsistencies and they've largely done a good job of it. Doing the same with Loki would both clear up some major continuity breaks on Marvel's end as well as finally giving the God of Mischief the credit and respect he deserves.
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