Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Loki Season 2, now streaming on Disney+.
Loki Season 2 director Dan DeLeeuw, who helmed Episode 2, has addressed the X-Men Easter eggs uncovered by fans in the MCU series, saying they were not a "planned" part of the show.
DeLeeuw directed the second episode of the new season following the premiere, which had viewers drawing comparisons between the door leading to the Temporal Loom and the entrance of Cerebro in X-Men. Some thought it could be teasing a connection to the mutant team, but ScreenRant has learned it was not intentional.
"That's the art department, Kasra [Farahani, the director of the third episode], our production designer, is a genius with all the sets," DeLeeuw said. "You can see with the posters in the TVA, if you let the art department run with something, they will just come up with amazing ideas that have a story behind them. But it's something you never would have anticipated showing up on set. It wasn't really planned.
"It was funny, I had my humanities teacher in university was talking about a book, and she had an idea that the author didn't really agree with, so she told her class, 'Well, if it's there, it's there,' " he recalled in reference to the Easter eggs. "And it's like, 'Okay, I don't think that was the intention, but, if they wanted it to be there, sure.' "
The familiar-looking door is not the only X-Men nod fans have noticed in Loki Season 2. The show's second episode transported Loki and Mobius to 1977 London on the Sacred Timeline to track down Hunter X-05, who has assumed the identity of actor Brad Wolfe, better known to Marvel comics fans as Zaniac.
Did this scene in 'LOKI' remind you of something? ? #Loki pic.twitter.com/gSQayVRFdX
— X-Men Updates (@XMenUpdate) October 6, 2023
The theatre and surrounding streets display various film posters, including one for a Kingo-led feature and one involving the Phone Ranger. As Loki and Mobius close in on Wolfe, the actor finds himself backed up against a wall scrawled in grafitti that reads: "All M are brothers", prompting more theories about the mutants.
These observations have proven to be all the more pertinent because it comes shortly after the news of an X-Men movie reportedly being in early development at Marvel Studios, heightening people to everything X-Men related within the MCU, but it seems like these visual references are nothing more than a bit of fun for fans.
We're sure it's not the last of them, so you'll need to keep watching closely through to the season finale on November 9. You can read IGN's review of Episodes 1-4 here, which comes with a small warning to viewers: "Those expecting a new multiversally manic season of Loki should temper their expectations."
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
