We love Loki. You love Loki. Marvel Studios love Loki. So why in the name of all that is Asgardian didn't the God of Mischief make an appearance in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Simple. He'd become too powerful. As the good people at Digital Spy discovered, Tom Hiddleston's scenes were cut after early screenings because his character was unbalancing the narrative and confusing audiences.
"In test screenings, audiences had over-emphasised Loki's role", the actor revealed, "so they thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing people's expectations."
The likelihood is that Hiddleston shot only one scene for the film - the sequence in which Thor has his vision of a hellish alt-Asgard - so it speaks to the magnetism and power of the character that people came away convinced that he, rather than Ultron, was the movie's big bad. Then again, he's been set up as one of the MCU's two puppetmasters - alongside Thanos - since Thor five years ago. And he'd no doubt be tickled to be the cause of confusion.
There's plenty of other good news for Hiddlestoners. The actor's scenes have definitely not been cut from either Crimson Peak (out October 16) or Ben Wheatley's High-Rise (March 11, 2016).