Last November, Idris Elba got our hopes up. Idris dropped some major gossip during the course of an interview, revealing that he and Tom Hiddleston had shot some scenes for The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Until that point, most people believed that Hiddleston’s Loki would not be making any kind of appearance in Ultron, villainous or otherwise. But Idris led people to believe that he and Hiddles agreed to do some kind of cameo in Ultron, just for fun and to further the story. The Daily Mail even claimed that Hiddleston had to film some EXTRA scenes at the very last minute last November/December. But as more and more critics (and now regular people) saw the film, many wondered: where was Hiddleston again? Apparently, Loki was nowhere to be found. MTV’s Josh Horowitz asked Joss Whedon about Loki’s absence directly, and Whedon admits that they shot some scenes with Hiddleston but they had to cut them.

There was no trace of Tom Hiddleston anywhere in the anticipated sequel, as signaled last year by fellow heartthrob Idris Elba, who proves yet again how much of a heartbreaker he is.

“Tom is not in the movie. Idris [Elba] misspoke…twice,” director Joss Whedon told MTV News in a video interview posted on Friday. “We did shoot something and it didn’t play…the movie has so much, is so filled and we didn’t want to feel overstuffed. And I really wanted to have Loki in it but I understood the decision…that it was just like, ‘OK, now there are too many voices in the chorus.’”

Elba, who plays Heimdall in the Thor films, had told the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph in November that he had filmed a scene for The Avengers: Age of Ultron with Hiddleston, who reprised his Thor and Avengers role as Loki, and Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor, a key cast member.

Heimdall did make it into The Avengers: Age of Ultron. You can, however, expect to see Loki in the 2017 movie Thor: Ragnarok, the third film in that franchise.

[From E! News]

My thought – and this probably makes no sense because at the end of the day, I couldn’t care less about Marvel, DC or any comic book adaptation – is that the Avengers pulled together to Mean Girl poor Tom Hiddleston because Tommy is easily the most popular actor in the franchise. Too far? Probably. After all, more people know RDJ’s name and Sam Jackson’s name and they know Chunk-Butt Evans as “that Captain America dude.” It’s silly to think that Hiddleston somehow would have more name-recognition or popularity than the rest of those guys. But still… I always get the feeling that Loki as a character is the most popular with the real Marvel nerds. And Tom has always been game to have fun with that. So, was this Mean Girling? Or was Whedon correct in saying that it was just too much of a good thing? The thing is… watch the video and it seems like it wasn’t Whedon’s call. If he had his way, he would have left Loki in.

Photos courtesy of WENN.