There’s a Datsun Bluebird 411 Wagon in Loki, y’all

Several readers sent in a hot tip yesterday regarding an old Datsun wagon guest starring in the Marvel cinematic universe. Specifically, it’s a 1965 Datsun Bluebird WP411 in the series Loki, and it plays a pretty significant part in the episode.

We’re not even going to begin to try and explain the actual plot of Loki. It probably didn’t help that we skipped right to episode five, when the Datsun makes its appearance, but with all the references to countless other Marvel movies it seems like we’d have to invest a good portion of our lives to figure it all out.

From what we can glean, it seems that the characters are transported into a some kind of junkyard dimension where some giant smoke monster wants to eat them. Owen Wilson’s character comes to the rescue in the Datsun. We were reminded by one of our tipsters who sent us this link from Jalopnik, that Wilson plays an actual car in another Disney franchise, Cars). The Datsun’s pretty beat up, but it’s unclear whether the patina happened during its time in this time prison or during its previous life as a pizza delivery vehicle.

It appears to be mostly CG, but we can still get some clues as to what model it was based on. It has 1964-65 taillights, but 1965 and up bumperettes, so it was likely modeled after a 1965 Datsun Bluebird. It’s kind of hard to see, but the fender badge seems to have “DATSUN” written out in block letters rather than script, indicating it has the 1.3-liter J engine.

Whatever it is, it’s pretty zippy. It’s able to outrun the smoke monster with ease on the grasslands, and even has pretty sharp handling. Perhaps Wilson was channeling his inner rally driver from when the Datsun 411 came in fifth in the Safari Rally. At the end of the episode Wilson goes back to his original dimension and the other characters go fight the smoke dragon, so it’s unlikely we’ll see this Datsun again, but it was fun while it lasted.