Warning: This article contains spoilers about the fifth episode ofLoki.
Loki’s time is almost up.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let’s start with Frog Thor.
Tom Hiddleston as Loki; ‘Loki’ head writer Michael Waldron (inset).Marvel Studios; Inset: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
What actually happened in the scene?
MICHAEL WALDRON:There was a version alongside the D.B.
Cooper sequence of kind of Loki’s Greatest Hits.
Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) in Marvel Studios' ‘Loki’ on Disney+.Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios
But yeah, we did almost get there in there.
But I am glad that we see that Frog Thor.
Episode 5 had a lot of Easter Eggs like Frog Thor and the Yellowjacket helmet.
Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) in ‘Loki.'.Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios
How many of those were written into the script versus being added while shooting or in post?
It’s kind of a combination of all of those.
There were a few I wrote in there.
[Laughs] But yeah, it was kind of a team effort getting that stuff in there.
Like the Thanos-copter, that was the production team.
They did an amazing job really making the episode a treat for fans in that way.
This morning, you shared a photo of your Alligator Loki birthday cake from 2019.
Where did the idea to include Alligator Loki come from?
That one was me.
That one I’ll take credit for.
That was a thing that came out in one of my very first meetings with Marvel.
And one of those [was], “We can have an Alligator Loki.”
And that was an idea that just kind of stuck, and now here we are.
But that was just a constant whittling down [to], what is the simplest version of this?
You mentioned how you were focused on making Alioth make sense.
Then, of course, it reminded me ofLost’s smoke monster, too.
Episode 2 has a storm.
So, I was thinking Loki and Sylvie are Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt inTwister.
That was kind of my reference point for it.
How were you thinking about that dynamic?
I think that Loki is very much a work in progress.
As he said, “I’ve never done this before.”
It definitely comes across as some sort of love story, but there’s also aspects of self-redemption.
How did you approach writing this tricky and unique relationship?
Is it safe now to share what that was?
I guess it was the thing that came up in episode 4.
Tom said that one of the foundations for him was loneliness, that Loki was lonely.
I feel like a lot of them made it to screen in the first episode.
The first episode had to do a lot of heavy lifting.
Episode 1 had some leg work to do.
But what is the minute time travel thing?
How many instances of existence are happening at any given time?
Are those happening slightly differently?
[Laughs]
Did you land on an answer to that question?
Was that thematic throughline on your minds as you were building the TVA?
That’s something that resonates with everybody.
Nobody trusts the DMV, that’s why we wrote this show.
From your experience, how comparable is that?
[Laughs] I’ve heard that.
It is not a soulless bureaucracy at all andKevin Feigeis not a Time Keeper.
Marvel is not afraid to mess with their own Sacred Timeline if it makes your project great.
The sixth and final episode ofLokiarrives next Wednesday on Disney+.
