Spoilers below for the latest episode of Loki, so be warned!
While fans were almost universally elated, Loki Episode 5 brought mixed feelings for its characters – relief, sadness, doubt, fear, happiness, confusion, more confusion etc. Seeing Loki out of his element continued the narrative set up in Episode 1, but with several new variants added in the latest installment. As if OG Loki and Sylvie weren’t enough to hold our attention, some new variants popped up in the penultimate episode. With Loki serving as his biggest role to date, Tom Hiddleston definitely had some thoughts about sharing the screen with all those other Gods of Mischief for the Disney+ series.
With each new episode, Loki has brought the MCU multiverse to the forefront more and more. So, having Tom Hiddleston share the screen with not only a roomful of other Lokis, but also another version of his own Loki, was bound to happen at some point, even if nobody saw the alligator version coming. After playing Marvel’s favorite trickster for a decade, Hiddleston seemed to welcome the chaos, and the star and executive produce saying this to Marvel.com about sharing the screen with so many versions of his iconic villain:
It was completely surreal and an absolute delight. I've been living with playing Loki for a long time and have become used to all his different characteristics. To suddenly be surrounded by incarnations and embodiments of those characteristics... those moments with Richard, DeObia, and Jack all together was so much fun. They're all brilliant.
In Episode 5, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki woke up in the post-pruning Void surrounded by new Lokis – Classic, Boastful, Kid and Alligator – portrayed respectively by Richard E. Grant, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, and CG animation. They served as OG Loki’s guides, for lack of a better term, for how to handle his current situation so close to the end of time. Eventually, he found camaraderie with the new Lokis, but that was so rudely interrupted by the Vote Loki variant (also played by Hiddleston), who incited some chaos with an even larger group of Lokis. And being amongst all these different iterations gave Hiddleston a unique perspective on the matter.
According to Tom Hiddleston, it wasn't the alligator Loki served as the metaphorical fish out of water in this scenario. Tom Hiddleston revealed to Marvel that the new Lokis were closer to the God of Mischief’s origins. The MCU star explained why his variant seemed so out-of-place in the Void.
In that moment, the character who looks least like Loki is me. It was like being at some sort of surrealist party. It was brilliant. I just enjoyed it so much. And my character, Loki, is completely out of his depth and a fish out of water. And it was such an enjoyable thing to play.
Upon seeing Tom Hiddleston waking up, viewers knew The Void wasn’t going to be any easier on Loki than his experiences at the TVA were, and that became all the more apparent as soon as Alioth entered the picture. While Loki's later outburst was a little much, it was warranted being in an unfamiliar place, and allowed viewers to witness the character's real-time evolution into a Loki whose actions weren't solely with his own interest in mind, with the same going for Classic Loki and his self-sacrifice. As usual, Hiddleston made the fish-out-of-water moment work, with the scene laying out all the different sides to Marvel’s trickster king.
Beyond the introduction of other Lokis, there are still more questions left after Episode 5. Hopefully, things will be cleared up in Episode 6. With the finale airing next week, you can check out the first five episodes of Loki on Disney+ if you haven’t already, while keeping hope alive that Loki Season 2 will pan out as rumored.
