‘Loki’ Almost Included a Surprising Guardians of the Galaxy Cameo
Throughout Loki, we meet a dizzying amount of variants stemming from Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief — Sylvie, Classic Loki, Kid Loki, Boastful Loki, and even Alligator Loki. But there are also tons of other variants that we don't see on screen. Thanks to Disney+’s documentary Assembled: The Making Of Loki, we get a peek at a piece of concept art that reveals a myriad of characters from alternate timelines ... Including what appears to be a variant of Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy.
The concept art depicts a crowded Time Variance Authority, where several variants wait their turn in line as Miss Minutes gives them the spiel of why they're all there. If you look towards the bottom of the frame, you’ll see a raccoon walking on his hind legs, donning the same white jumpsuit as everyone else. While no one can say for certain if he’s a variant of Rocket Raccoon, it seems pretty obvious. How many other anthropomorphic raccoons have we seen in the MCU?
Check out the image below to see for yourself (via Binge Watch This):
As you can also see, there also appears to be a Skrull standing a few bodies ahead of Rocket. So basically, the original concept was to bring in a bevy of familiar Marvel creatures into the TVA to paint a larger picture of the mysterious bureaucratic organization. But as development continued, the artists decided to pare down the setting to keep the focus on Loki.
Nonetheless, Loki taught us that variants of other characters do exist in the MCU. We’ll get to delve into the multiverse more when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives in 2022. Whether or not the Rocket Raccoon variant will be there remains unknown.