‘Alligator Loki’ Has Quickly Become The Baby Yoda Of Marvel’s Latest Show

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the fifth episode of Loki, which went live on July 7.

Disney has always known cute, from the earliest cartoons of its founder, Walter Elias Disney, through The Mandalorian, which lives on a platform that wouldn’t exist without his tireless work almost a century ago. And it looks like, with its third show, the Marvel wing has finally found its Baby Yoda: Its most recent episode featured something that was called “Alligator Loki,” which is as cute as you’re going to get with a creature who could chomp someone’s hand off (and, in the episode, does).

The show’s fifth episode finds Tom Hiddleston’s mischievous antihero surrounded by variants of himself from other dimensions: Boastful Loki, President Loki, Kid Loki, etc. There’s also Classic Loki, played by no less than Richard E. Grant. But one clearly stood out from the rest, including the guy who once played the peerlessly disreputable Withnail: one that’s a small alligator wearing Loki’s ostentatious horned headgear.

In a new behind-the-scenes piece on Marvel.com, Hiddleston though it offered some deep stuff about identity. “The question is, ‘Is he really Loki? Or is he just green?’” Hiddleston asked. “It’s such a funny question that [the Lokis] all bicker about. One thing about Loki is that Loki loves to be right. And they all have a different opinion about this alligator.”

But others weren’t taking it that seriously. Series director Kate Heron had a jokey post about how the lizard Loki is a “diva.”

The reptile take on the MCU’s popular trickster quickly dominated social media. Stan accounts were born.

And there was plenty of love to go around.

Anyway, perhaps Alligator Loki can get a spin-off series where he hangs with Baby Yoda (sorry: Grogu), BB-8, and any other recent Disney-owned cute critter. Of course, the last two better watch themselves around this hungry, hungry green guy.