Is Loki Actually More Popular Than Thor?
Of course, audiences love superheroes. Why wouldn't they? Most of the time they're played by globally loved stars who step into a colorful costume to save the day in a huge blockbuster that provides some brilliant escapism for a few hours. One of the biggest heroes in the Marvel Comics pantheon is clearly the God of Thunder himself, Thor. Played by Chris Hemsworth throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the hero has become bigger than ever before.
Obviously, Thor, Odin, Loki, and the rest of the Asgardian characters are all taken from Norse mythology. But those rich legends only gave the Marvel Comics writers plenty to pull from when writing Thor's adventures. One of the biggest elements of the Odinson's stories is his rivalry with his brother Loki, the God of Mischief. And with Tom Hiddleston starring as the horned trickster, audiences quickly fell for the devious character.
He had such an interesting character arc throughout the "Thor" trilogy and the "Avengers" movies that he almost became something of an anti-hero rather than a mustache-twirling villain. Loki's redemption meant that his death at the (literal) hands of Thanos had a pretty big impact in "Avengers: Infinity War." But thanks to some time-traveling shenanigans in "Avengers: Endgame," a previous version of the character survived and is now the star of his own TV series on Disney+, which is already a hit with fans ... Which begs the question, is Loki actually more popular than Thor?
The data doesn't lie
Sure, heroes are interesting, but villains often have much more depth and interesting motivations for their actions. It's easy to be fascinated by what makes them tick. It's why the Joker is one of the most famous villains of all time (and arguably, across all mediums) because his pure, unfiltered chaos makes him completely terrifying. The love for Loki is quite similar because whenever he comes on screen, he upends whatever the hero is up to because of his unpredictability and his general conniving nature.
A new post from Fandom recently surfaced on Reddit, showing the pageviews year-by-year since 2014 for both Loki and Thor. The only time the God of Thunder has outranked his villainous brother was in 2017, which can likely be attributed to the fact that this was when "Thor: Ragnarok" arrived in theaters. It'll definitely be interesting to see the numbers over the next few years. With the "Loki" TV series currently airing on Disney+, there's much more mystery and information being thrown into his story. In 2021 alone, Loki's Fandom page has been viewed 363,000 times, while readers have headed to Thor's only 184,700 times.
But, don't forget – "Thor: Love and Thunder" is on the way from Taika Waititi, heading to theaters in May 2022. So it looks like that rivalry will only get bigger, even if it's just in terms of the data.