Marvel's Throg Is Making His Live-Action Debut, But There's A Twist
With the Multiverse Saga fully underway, it's past time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to start exploring the many animal variants of beloved characters at its disposal. "Loki" Season 1 introduced Alligator Loki, capturing audiences' hearts as quickly as a variant of the titular god's arm, and now Throg is on the way ... sort of.
Today, Marvel finally announced the physical release of two of its inaugural Disney+ shows, with "WandaVision" and "Loki" Season 1 getting the 4K UHD and Blu-Ray treatments. While each series is getting its own beautiful Collector's Edition Steelbook, the bonus features included on each disc have us giddy for Throg's MCU debut. Included in "Loki: The Complete First Season" is the deleted scene "Loki's Coronation," featuring Mobius (Owen Wilson) looking through moments in the God of Mischief's timeline, where Throg (or Frog Thor) appears during Loki's coronation.
During "Loki" Season 1's initial airing, writer and producer Eric Martin revealed that Throg was meant to have a bigger role, but the scene wasn't relevant to the overall story, so it got cut. However, with "Loki: The Complete First Season," Throg will officially graduate from a glorified cameo to a live-action animal superhero, fighting his adopted brother in the resurfaced deleted scene.
Throg's debut has been a longtime coming
Although the deleted scene included in "Loki: The Complete First Season" will be the first time fans see Throg in action, it isn't his first appearance, or mention, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The earliest mentions of Throg date back to "Thor: Ragnarok," when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) ruled over Asgard disguised as Odin (Anthony Hopkins). When Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns home, he finds Odin watching a play recreating Loki's "sacrifice" at the end of "Thor: The Dark World." During the stage performance, the Loki actor (Matt Damon), in his dying words, apologizes to the Thor actor (Luke Hemsworth), saying, "Sorry about that time I turned you into a frog." Meanwhile, the real Loki reminisces on the experience, calling it hilarious and confirming the events between him and the MCU's Thor.
While "Loki" Season 1 ultimately cut the scene featuring Throg in action, Episode 5, "Journey Into Mystery," features a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance from the amphibian god of thunder. As Loki joins his variants in their underground base, the camera pans through the dirt, revealing Throg trapped inside a jar. As if that wasn't great enough, the label on Throg's transparent prison reads "T365," referencing "Thor" #365, one of the comics involving the story arc in which Loki turns Thor into a frog, marking the first comic book appearance of Throg.