Warning: The story below contains spoilers for the first episode of Loki.
Loki, the new show starring Tom Hiddleston as the God of Mischief, has officially begun streaming in Disney+.
In true Marvel fashion, the first episode of the series is full of hidden details rife with meaning, or meta references that could tease future developments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Only one episode has been released so far – the series premiere, “Glorious Purpose” – but fans are already taking a second look at some scenes and frames, searching for every possible clue.
Here are the main Easter eggs spotted in the first episode of Loki:
Did Loki just hijack a plane?
Apparently, yes! In one scene, Owen Wilson’s Mobius plays a clip from a moment in Loki’s past, in which the God of Mischief is seen deploying a rather elaborate scheme to hijack an airplane. “I can’t believe you were DB Cooper!” Mobius says in disbelief.
In the show, Loki dismisses the stunt as the result of a bet he had made with his brother Thor. In real life, however, DB Cooper was the monicker of a man who hijacked a plane in 1971. His identity has remained a mystery for the past 50 years.
Tom Hiddleston in Marvel’s new series ‘Loki’
(Disney+)
Who’s that with the horns?
Good question! In one sequence, when the TVA travels back in time (and to France), a horned devil is depicted on a church’s stained glass window.
This generated some rumours that the creature could be a reference to Mephisto, a Marvel Comics character, but it seems that the appearance is actually an aesthetic reference to Loki himself. (The God of Mischief, after all, is known to wear a horned helmet of his own, particularly when he’s up to no good.)
“The devil in the church actually genuinely is coincidental,” Loki director Kate Herron told Den of Geek. “That’s meant to be a reference to our show. It’s a metaphor for Loki with the horns and, you know, he was cast out of heaven so that is coincidental.”
This stained-glass window is seen in episode one of ‘Loki’
(Disney+/Marvel)
“I’ll gut you like a fish, Casey”
In a hilarious scene, Loki, attempting to retrieve the powerful Tesseract, tries to intimidate a TVA employee named Casey by telling him: “Give me the Tesseract or I’ll gut you like a fish, Casey.” (Unfortunately for Loki, it turns out that Casey doesn’t know what a fish is, because there aren’t any in the TVA’s headquarters.)
Loki threatens a TVA employee to retrieve the Tesseract
(Disney+/Marvel)
This would appear to be a reference to Scream, in which Drew Barrymore portrays a character named Casey Becker. Ghostface threatens that same Casey over the phone by telling her: “You hang up on me again and I’ll gut you like a fish!”
Doctor Strange, is that you?
When Loki first arrives at the TVA, he’s made to watch an introductory, animated video featuring a character named Miss Minutes. In the clip, Miss Minutes uses some… interesting words.
Miss Minutes, Loki’s new, animated nemesis
(Disney+/Marvel)
“Long ago, there was a vast multiversal war,” she begins, adding a little later: “Stepping off your path created a Nexus event, which, left unchecked, could branch off into madness, leading to another multiversal war”.
Fans’ ears may perk up at these words, because tucked among Marvel’s release calendar is a film titled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (the second standalone film dedicated to Doctor Strange). This means we could expect to see some crossover between Loki and the upcoming movie. Perhaps the TVA will make an appearance on the big screen? Who knows! Hopefully all will be revealed when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is released in March 2022.
