Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Loki Season 2 Episode 3, so read at your own risk!
The recently-aired third episode of Loki season 2 featured an easter egg to fan-favorite Marvel Comics character Balder the Brave, an Asgardian who is also Thor's brother and is based on the Norse mythology deity Baldr.
The reference happened as Loki and Mobius were wandering around the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in a branched timeline and saw statues of Thor, Odin, and Balder on display.
Loki complained about the existence of the diorama and questioned why Balder was included as one of the statues since no one had heard of him. Mobius responded by confirming his knowledge of the character.
This marked the first time that the MCU referenced Thor's long-lost brother, who had never been mentioned nor acknowledged his existence in the Thor films whenever they talked about their family history.
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Loki Producer Explains the Balder the Brave Easter Egg
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Loki executive producer Kevin Wright opened up about the Balder the Brave reference in the recent third episode. He explained that they saw it as a joke for them since they never acknowledged his existence in the past.
"Balder is always a funny one because he has not found his way into an MCU project to this point and it felt like that is part of the joke to us," he said.
"It's 'Why not? Why is he seemingly being erased from history?' which we wanted to then turn a little bit at the World's Fair. We're always looking for ways to organically get those things in and not force it."
The character almost made his MCU debut last year in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as he was supposed to be one of the members of the Illuminati in Earth-838.
Daniel Crag was originally supposed to play the role in the film. Unfortunately, he backed out and his spot was replaced by John Krasinski's Reed Richards.
This is certainly an exciting easter egg for long-time Marvel fans since they have finally acknowledged that the character exists somewhere in the MCU multiverse.
While we don't know yet whether it is a sign of his eventual appearance in the future in one of the upcoming MCU projects, it's still great to see him being acknowledged at last and fans definitely wouldn't mind seeing him show up on-screen at some point.
New episodes of the second season of Loki premiere every Thursday night on Disney+.
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