Loki episode 1 Easter eggs revealed by director, including nods to Iron Man and The Last of Us

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Kate Herron has revealed some Loki episode 1 Easter eggs

Tom Hiddleston in Loki
(Image credit: Disney)

Loki director Kate Herron has revealed some Easter eggs in episode 1 of the Marvel series.

The first involves the early minutes of the episode, where Loki crash lands into a desert. Herron revealed that this was an intentional callback to the first Iron Man movie, which she explained "felt like a fun way to reference the film that started it all and wanted it to represent Loki's new journey ahead." Check out a comparison of the scenes below.

The director also revealed that showing a moment from The Avengers that featured Ashley Johnson, the voice of Ellie in The Last of Us, was also a deliberate shoutout: "I'm a massive fan of the [Naughty Dog] [Last of Us] games and [Critical Role] so yes, I couldn't resist getting in that great moment with [Ashley Johnson] from #AvengersAssemble in our montage"

A more unconventional shoutout is one to Wallace and Gromit – specifically a sequence where Gromit drops into his trousers while falling from one room to another. Loki goes through a similar ordeal in the episode, complete with a costume change.

Herron also talked about a line of dialogue from the premiere episode: "Last one is one of [my] favorite lines by [Michael Waldron, head writer], I love it when Loki calls himself a villain, and Mobius says "That's not [how] I see it", really beautiful moment of empathy and a insight into what kind of character Mobius is."

And finally, Herron revealed that a moment where Mobius brings a doodle of a stick figure to 3D life was Owen Wilson's idea: "Building on the last one and Mobius' empathy, the moment when he draws a stick figure for the kid in the cathedral was a pitch of Owen's, and also revealed to be another fun bit of tech world-building too for the tem pad"

These are far from the only Easter eggs in the premiere episode – a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment might be teasing the MCU debut of the villainous Kang the Conqueror ahead of his confirmed appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and the episode might also have teased Secret Wars with its reference to multiversal war.

Loki is dropping the rest of its six episodes weekly, and while you wait for episode 2, check out how to watch Marvel movies in order to get up to speed on the MCU – and find the best Disney Plus prices and deals.

Check out the best Prime Day TV deals right here.

Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.