Matt Damon’s return to the View Askewniverse in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot will see him reprise his character of Loki. He previously played the fallen angel in fantasy comedy Dogma, a film in which director Kevin Smith examined questions about his own Catholic faith and played them out on screen.

Although the name Loki is now synonymous with Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of the Norse god of mischief, prior to the birth of the MCU he wasn’t well known outwith people familiar with Norse mythology (or those who remembered him being name checked in The Mask as the creator of the titular object of transformative power). Despite the Dogma character being an angel from the Christian faith, he was named after the Norse deity to reference the sense of chaotic unpredictability they shared. There is also the possibly that the suggestion of beings from other pantheons existing in a world governed by the rules of Christianity were included to acknowledge points of comparative similarity between religions throughout history, in the same way that Salma Hayek’s character Serendipity was a Muse, beings from Greek mythology who inspired creatives and intellectuals.

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The news of Damon’s return as Loki was revealed by Smith on his Instagram. His appearance in the film had already been shown by a brief shot in the Jay and Silent Bob Reboot trailer that sees him turning around while sat in a church pew holding a bible, but the exact capacity in which he would feature was not apparent in context. Smith’s initial plan was to use Damon in reference to Good Will Hunting, in a variation of the way he similarly featured in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, but Smith's wife Jennifer Schwalbach suggested he appear as Loki instead.

Of course, the immediate question is exactly how the return of Loki will come about, seeing as he was killed at the climax of Dogma by his angelic companion Bartleby after questioning the latter’s determination to carry out their plan even after learning it would result in the obliteration of the universe. Smith acknowledges this and pointed it out after Schwalbach made the suggestion, to which her response was, “It’s a good thing you don’t know the writer, or else you might be able to change your idea.

Despite Smith’s “life size Dogma action figure” not speaking in the trailer and it making no reference to his character, since he is seen in a church and is wearing the same clothes Loki wore throughout Dogma, in retrospect it should have been apparent this was who he was. It’s unlikely we’ll find out how Loki is alive before we see the film, but given Jay & Silent Bob Reboot’s subject matter of ridiculing the ubiquity of film reboots and the narrative hoops jumped through in order to provide fan-pleasing moments, it will likely involve a meta comment on how ridiculously implausible such occurrences are, even as the film itself is shamelessly guilty of them.

Next: The 10 Best Characters Kevin Smith Created, Ranked

Source: Kevin Smith

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