Warning: the article contains spoilers for Loki.
The legendary visual effects studio founded by George Lucas, Industrial Light and Magic, is releasing a behind-the-scenes video of some of the computer sorcery they were able to pull off for Marvel’s Loki.
The Disney Plus original series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe follows the solo adventures of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, in an alternate timeline of the character we saw escaping the Battle of New York in 2012 with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame. He is brought to mysterious Time Variance Authority, which takes place outside time and space itself, and is tasked with “pruning” various versions of himself from alternative dimension and timelines.
Warning: from here on out, the article will discuss spoilers for Loki.
The show eventually culminates in our main Loki protagonist being pruned himself by one of the TVA agents and transported to the purgatory-like Void, a place at the end of time from which nothing has returned. There, he encounters several alternative versions of himself, including Deobia Oparei’s Boastful Loki, Jack Veal’s Kid Loki, Richard Grant’s Classic Loki (styled in a loose-fitting basic cotton and silk costume as if the character had a 1960s TV show adaption a la Adam West’s Batman), and even an Alligator Loki.
This section of the show proved to be some of most visual effects-heavy, as the behind-the-scenes clip showcases. And, somewhat unsurprisingly, Alligator Loki is revealed in the clip to be 100% computer-generated imagery. The scenes were also filmed on sets utilizing blue screens in the background to fill in with CGI later on. As such, it’s hilarious to see the various Loki actors in the clip wrestle with a blue doll in the nebulous shape of Alligator Loki at various times.
It’s also fascinating to see some of the work digital puppeteering that went behind creating the cloud-like creature Alioth, who domineers the Void world and one-by-one kills off each rogue variant who inhabits it.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch Loki on Disney Plus right now.
