Not much gets past Marvel fans, who’ve trained themselves to spot easily-missed Easter eggs and throwaway references. Sure enough, a lot of analysis has already been done on a brief bit of dialogue in Loki episode 4. At one point, Owen Wilson’s Mobius mentions how the TVA has brought in “Kree, Titans, and vampires” but the Loki variants are by far the most trouble. This immediately made fans pay attention as this constituted the first reference to the undead in the MCU.
As we all know, vampire lore in the Marvel universe is about to be properly explored in the upcoming Blade reboot, starring Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker hunter. CinemaBlend has since chatted with Loki director Kate Herron and asked her whether there was any deeper significance to Mobius’ references to these three species. Interestingly, Herron declined to answer and said Marvel President Kevin Feige is the one to talk to instead.
“I would say you’d have to ask Kevin Feige [laughs]…” she replied. “That’s something with Marvel for sure.”
The fact that this was Herron’s response does suggest this wasn’t a line the Loki writers cooked up without any kind of supervision from Marvel high-ups. It’s possible the dialogue was written first and then Marvel gave them permission to go ahead with it or, more likely, Marvel requested that Loki should drop a nod to these species, specifically vampires, in the first place.
The key to understanding this reference may be showrunner Michael Waldron. As well as helming Loki, Waldron also penned the script for 2022’s Doctor Strange 2. Certain intel has claimed that Blade will make his MCU debut in the Benedict Cumberbatch sequel. If vampires are about to enter the mythos in Multiverse of Madness, then it would make sense for Waldron to slot in a tip of the hat to the bloodsuckers in his TV series.
At the very least, we’re almost 100% sure that there isn’t room for vampires to show up in the last two episodes of Loki, which will unfold over the next couple of Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
