It was a wonderfully strange surprise to learn that there is a Loki variant that’s an alligator in Marvel’s Loki. I totally wasn’t expecting that, yet it now exists in the MCU and I love it! I especially enjoy the fact that he has his own Loki horns and hangs out with the other Loki variants.
Alligator Loki appeared briefly in “The Nexus Event,” but he makes his big debut in episode 5, “Journey Into Mystery.” So, where did the idea of alligator Loki come from? It came from an early pitch meeting between Loki head writer Michael Waldron and producers Steven Broussard and Kevin Wright.
Waldron explains, “We were talking about [how] we want to meet many different versions of Loki in this show. I was just like, there should be an Alligator Loki. And it’s like, well, why? Because he’s green.” He went on to say:
“It’s so stupid, but it also makes total sense. You almost have to take it seriously, like maybe he is [a Loki]? Why shouldn’t there be an alligator version of Loki? For all we know, that’s an alligator universe or whatever. It’s just the sort of irreverent thing that, in this show, we play straight and make the audience take it seriously.
“I love that little guy. Very, very, very cute. I’m sure a cuddly companion for those lost Lokis.”
Well, the alligator of mischief sure was enjoyable to watch in the episode! It was brought to life using CGI effects, but the cast and crew actually worked with an alligator stand-in in the form of a stuffed animal. Loki director Kate Herron said, “We tragically didn’t have Sean Gunn crawling around on the floor.” Gunn is the stand-in for Rocket Raccoon in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The director went on to say:
“You put [the stuffed alligator] in there, and the actors can interact with it and get a sense of how heavy or how large the alligator would be. [It was filmed] in the world of imagination with our cast because sometimes they were acting to a blade of grass.”
They even stuck googly eyes on it to make it look like a Muppet character on the set. The design for the character did go through various versions and when talking about that Herron said:
“We had some early versions when we were doing visual effects that probably were a bit too cute, in the sense of it was a bit more like a cartoony kind of alligator. But it just became funnier and funnier the more it looked like a real alligator that just happened to be wearing the horns. That was the sweet spot. Once we landed in that spot where it felt like a real alligator, but with a kind of slightly jaunty horns on, that’s where we were like, ‘Oh, there he is.’”
As for if this alligator really is a Loki, Waldron says, “I know, but I want people to wonder. I want that to be the next great Marvel debate. Is Alligator Loki really a Loki or not?”
I choose to believe it’s a Loki variant, because why the hell not!?
Happy Episode Five “Journey into Mystery” @LokiOfficial day! Here is one the biggest divas and the most demanding actor I’ve ever had to work with, taking a break from his reign of terror to relax in his chair #alligatorloki #loki pic.twitter.com/3WH57yt0Bz
— Kate Herron (@iamkateherron) July 7, 2021
Source: Marvel