One Loki Episode 5 cameo may confirm the best Thor 4 leak
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any weirder.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any weirder, Marvel’s Loki goes and does that.
The latest episode of the Disney+ series is its most visually ambitious and narratively chaotic episode to date, a penultimate installment featuring over a dozen different Loki variants and a giant purple cloud-beast called Alioth. To top things off, the episode, titled “Journey Into Mystery,” also boasts more than its fair share of weird Marvel Easter eggs, including a shot of The Mad Titan’s wackiest means of transportation.
But nothing in Loki Episode 5 is more unexpected, strange, and delightful than its blink-and-you’ll-miss-it inclusion of the greatest Thor variant of them all.
Hello, Throg — Around nine minutes into its runtime, Loki Episode 5 heads underground — literally. As Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is led by his fellow Loki variants into the crumbling bowling alley they’ve adopted as their shelter, Loki director Kate Herron takes a moment to show viewers some of the treasures buried underneath the dirt in The Void, including a variant version of Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir.
Buried just a little deeper than Mjolnir, though, is a glass jar holding none other than Throg.
The beloved Thor variant is seen thrashing around in the glass jar for a few moments as the camera glides past him. It’s a quick moment, but it’s undeniably fun, especially since the version of Throg presented is extremely comics accurate (he’s even wearing his traditional Thor cape and helmet). The glass jar in which he’s held also features a label reading “T365,” itself a reference to Thor #365, the comic book issue that featured the first appearance of Frog Thor.
Throg in Loki Episode 5.
The Frog of Thunder — It’s been rumored for several months now that Throg will appear in Thor: Love and Thunder next year. The film, directed by Taika Waititi, is already set to feature more than one version of the God of Thunder. As a result, Throg’s cameo in Loki Episode 5, while unexpected, strangely feels like a long time coming at this point.
The inclusion of both Throg and Gator Loki in Loki Episode 5 also confirms it’s possible for even the weirdest of variants to exist in the MCU. That means Throg could very well appear in some capacity in Thor: Love and Thunder, especially if the Time Variance Authority is actually destroyed at the end of Loki’s first season and the MCU’s variants are once again allowed to exist free of the TVA’s oversight.
Hear him ribbit.
The Inverse Analysis — Of all the things Marvel fans might have expected Loki to do, confirming the existence of a comics character like Throg in the MCU probably wasn’t one of them. That’s a testament to not only how ambitious of a series Loki is but also how willingly it embraces the weirdest aspects of established Marvel comics lore.
Moving forward, it’s entirely possible for Throg’s MCU presence to be limited to this brief cameo in Loki Episode 5. That’d be disappointing, but understandable considering the sheer absurdity of the character.
However, given the role the multiverse is set to play in upcoming Marvel films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home, there’s still reason to believe Thor: Love and Thunder will dabble with alternate realities a little bit too. Hopefully, that leads to a more substantial appearance from Marvel’s Frog of Thunder.
Loki is streaming now on Disney+.
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