The Mind-Blowing Detail About Loki Episode 3's Final Scene

Thus far, the Disney+ Marvel shows have not skimped on the spectacle. Even a smaller, sitcom-style show like WandaVision isn't afraid to lean into aesthetics from certain eras of television. And, yes, by the time Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision's (Paul Bettany) story was concluded, we got some big action set pieces, complete with witches, robots, and super-powered twins flying around with reckless abandon.

Similarly, "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" was very much a spy thriller by its very nature, which translated to lots of fight sequences including ones in the sky. The opening action sequence of that series features Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) taking on a plane full of hijackers — all of whom were flying in the air without the use of a plane. What we found out recently is that a lot of what we saw was actually people falling through the sky and not the CGI many assumed it was.

Similarly, "Loki" also has a lot of big set pieces, many including the mysterious Time Variance Authority — an organization which seems to go on forever and exist entirely outside of the flow of normal time and space. And in the third episode of "Loki," both Loki himself (Tom Hiddleston) himself and his uneasy partner — and alleged Loki variant — Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) find themselves on Lamentis-I, a world due for imminent destruction. 

Well, it turns out that much like the aforementioned scene in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," there's some very impressive practical effects work on that doomed world.

Where Loki goes, there will always be trouble. And if there's more than one variant Loki present, then the trouble grows exponentially. While attempting to escape Lamentis-I before it and all the people on it are utterly obliterated, Loki and Sylvie run afoul of basically everyone else attempting to escape doomsday. And since we're talking about two Lokis and not two Thors, our gods plural of mischief spend some time fighting, but a lot more running for their lives through this very futuristic-looking alien town. 

It turns out there was no real CGI involved in crafting that space.

"That particular set was an entire set build, and it was really a beautiful set," Sophia di Martino told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview. "It was all built outside in the parking lot of the studio and painted in these incredible sort of glow in the dark paints. I don't know the correct term for them. In the daytime it looked like a sort of town made out of polystyrene and paint. Then at night when the lights were on it, it looked like you see it. Just this stunning other-worldly town."

The reason for such a big set to be built was simple — it allowed for more cohesive storytelling through the action. "It was sort of built in a horseshoe shape so we could run around and then run into a restaurant, run out again and run around a bit more," di Martino explains. "They really wanted it to be continuous so the camera could move around and follow us and then we could swap around. It was really clever and a lot of work went into the planning stages of that scene, I'm sure."

New episodes of "Loki" stream on Disney+ every Wednesday.