There is an academy award-winning actor who has spent more than three decades jumping between action movies, dramas, and comedies. Turns out, he has also crossed over into the occasional Martian survival situation. He has been nominated for Academy Awards across screenplays, producing, and acting. This actor has worked with some of the biggest directors in Hollywood, and somehow managed to become one of those actors who can make almost any movie feel like their own. But there is another strange little detail hiding in his filmography.
You might not believe or remember how they have also played Loki from the Marvel comics. Not just once. But twice. No, this isn’t some multiverse trick where he secretly became the God of Mischief and nobody noticed. He has portrayed the character in two different Marvel productions, although only one of those appearances counts as part of the MCU. The other came years earlier, in a movie where Damon wasn’t exactly playing the Loki most fans were expecting.
The first time Matt Damon played Loki came in Dogma, Kevin Smith’s 1999 religious comedy. Damon played an angel named Loki alongside Ben Affleck’s Bartleby. Yes, that Loki. Before the MCU turned the name into one of Marvel’s biggest characters, Damon was already walking around Hollywood with it. This version, however, has nothing to do with Tom Hiddleston’s Marvel character. He is a fallen angel, not the adopted brother of Thor, and the movie is very much doing its own thing. It is one of those bizarre pieces of casting trivia that sounds made up until you actually look it up.
Then Marvel came calling. Damon appeared as Loki again in Thor: Ragnarok, although he wasn’t actually playing the real Loki. He played an Asgardian actor performing Loki in a stage production about Loki’s supposed heroic life. It’s a quick appearance, but it is Matt Damon playing Loki while also technically playing an actor playing Loki. Because apparently one layer of Loki wasn’t enough. The joke works even better because the real Loki, played by Hiddleston, is right there watching the performance. Damon would later return to the role in Thor: Love & Thunder, making the MCU version of the joke even harder to forget.
The Dogma connection is particularly funny when you realize what really happened. Damon played Loki in 1999, nearly a decade before the MCU officially began with Iron Man. At the time, Loki wasn’t yet the household name he would become. Even though the two Lokis characters are not technically the same, the name still brings up a connection to the Norse mythology and Marvel Comics character. And yet, there was no Tom Hiddleston performance. No Avengers. No Loki television series. Just Matt Damon playing a fallen angel in a very Kevin Smith movie. Then the MCU introduced its own version of the mythological Loki from its comics, and cemented the character in pop culture.
That makes Damon’s two Loki appearances a fun little piece of Hollywood history. One came before the MCU existed. The other came after Marvel had turned Loki into one of its most recognizable characters. And Damon managed to play both without ever actually becoming the main Loki fans know. That’s the kind of casting coincidence that feels almost too perfect. Somewhere out there, Damon has technically played Loki twice. Tom Hiddleston still has the throne. But for one very strange corner of movie trivia, Matt Damon got there first.
The funniest part of the whole story might be that Matt Damon’s Loki streak fits perfectly with Marvel’s obsession with alternate versions, fake identities, and characters who refuse to stay dead. Damon has also become famous for surprise appearances and playing exaggerated versions of himself, so his accidental Loki résumé feels strangely on brand.
Meanwhile, Loki has gone from Thor’s troublesome brother to one of the MCU’s most complicated characters, complete with time travel, variants, and enough existential crises to fill several timelines. Imagine the chaos Loki will cause in Avengers: Doomsday. So maybe Damon never stole the Loki spotlight—but somewhere in the multiverse, there’s a timeline where he absolutely did. Hiddleston should probably watch his back.
