While the MCU is still establishing a new overarching direction in the aftermath of Avenegrs: Endgame, it's safe to say Kang the Conquerer is going to be a big deal in the years ahead. Jonathan Majors debuted as a version of this iconic Marvel villain in the Season 1 finale of Loki, and the death of He Who Rmains merely sets the stage for more versions of Kang to plague the timeline.
So the question is, now that Thanos is gone, how much of a role will Majors' character play in the MCU moving forward? We know Majors will play Kang in 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and we even got our first look at Kang thanks to a Comic-Con poster. But even the next Ant-Man movie is just the beginning of Kang's story.
If you're not familiar with Kang or why he has the potential to be the next Thanos-level threat to the MCU, we're here to shed light on this powerful villain and also explain the Season 1 Loki ending. These are the topics we'll be covering here:
- Loki Ending Explained: Kang's First Appearance
- Who Is He Who Remains/Kang the Conqueror?
- Kang's Origin
- Kang the Conqueror Powers and Abilities
- Kang's Many Identities
- Kang and the Young Avengers
- Kang the Conqueror Actor Jonathan Majors and Marvel Universe Connections
- Kang in TV and Games
Loki Ending Explained: Kang's First Appearance
In the Season 1 finale of Loki, Loki and Sylvie finally make it to the end of time (should that be capitalized?) to confront the mysterious figure behind the TVA, a.k.a. the Time Variance Authority. No, not the Time Keepers, who we learned a couple of episodes back were fakes, but the actual figure who has been overseeing the pruning of the Sacred Timeline: He Who Remains.
In this Loki episode, Majors plays the character as a fun figure, one who perhaps has gone a little bonkers living forever at the end of all time, knowing everything that is going to happen.
Well, to a point. As the episode proceeds, He Who Remains explains his backstory, but also that they are now reaching a moment in the timeline where he will no longer know how things are going to play out -- a juncture that will finally free him of the self-imposed prison he has been living in as master of the timeline. And it's up to Sylvie and Loki to decide what comes next. At the same time, the one Sacred Timeline the Time Variance Authority has been maintaining under his watch will start to splinter into an untold number of timeline branches...
But first, about that backstory: He Who Remains explains that it all began with a Variant of himself, a scientist from the 31st century, who discovered that other timelines/realities exist. At first things were friendly as other versions, or Variants of this scientist, began to meet up across different timelines. But then some Variants turned to conquering, and the Multiverse War we learned about in Episode 1 began. In the end, He Who Remains... well, remained. As the winner of the war, he created the TVA to keep other timelines from branching into existence in order to avoid another multiversal conflict.
And so now He Who Remains wants out, and Loki and Sylvie have a choice: Become the new masters of the Sacred Timeline, or kill He Who Remains, which will bring about the multiverse once again and, inevitably, the return of an untold number of He Who Remains/Kangs who will wind up re-starting the war. Loki wants to take over, if only to avoid the inevitable conflict that will result from killing He Who Remains. But Sylvie wants to kill He Who Remains, choosing the chaos of a multiverse -- and free will -- over all else. After fighting Loki, she kisses him -- and then pushes him back through time to the TVA before stabbing He Who Remains, who doesn't even fight back. We last see Sylvie at the end of time, contemplating her decision as the timeline branches and splinters into an infinite amount of variations -- a multiverse.
The Loki finale ends with our title character landing back at the Time Variance Authority, but he soon realizes that it's a TVA seemingly from a different timeline, because Mobius and Hunter B-15 have no idea who he is. (Or is it that the Timeline Formerly Known as Sacred has been rewritten?) And then he sees it -- a statue of He Who Remains, who now looks a lot like Kang from the comics. Is Kang the Conqueror now the master of time (and the TVA)? We'll surely find out in Season 2, which was revealed in post-credits tease that simply shows TVA paperwork being stamped with the words "Loki will return for Season 2."
Loki star Tom Hiddleston has since confirmed Season 2 will begin filming in Summer 2022. And we also learned at Comic-Con that Kang will play a huge role in future phases, with Phase 6 culminating Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Who Is He Who Remains/Kang the Conqueror?
It's not easy recapping the convoluted history of Kang the Conqueror. He's a villain who's gone by many names and many different motivations in his countless clashes with the Avengers and Fantastic Four. But through it all the basics have stayed the same. Kang is a man who sees himself as the rightful master of the world. Using the power of time travel and the most sophisticated weaponry his future world has to offer, Kang has repeatedly sought to rewrite history to his own whims and ensure his own rise to power.
Kang's love of time travel is exactly what makes him such a dangerous and seemingly never-ending thorn in humanity's side. No matter how often he's defeated, banished or even destroyed utterly, some version of him is always out there, waiting and plotting. In the Season 1 Loki ending, He Who Remains is clearly a Kang Variant, but apparently a more benevolent one than the Kang (or Kangs) we'll likely get moving forward in the MCU.
Kang's Origin
While the first appearance of Kang the Conqueror is featured in 1964's The Avengers #8, the character technically debuted a year earlier in Fantastic Four #19. We'll try to summarize Kang's confusing origin story as simply as possible.
Kang's real name is Nathaniel Richards. Originally a historical scholar from the 31st century (and possibly a distant descendant of either Reed Richards or Victor von Doom), Nathaniel discovers Doctor Doom's ancient time travel tech and uses it to travel back to the era of ancient Egypt. Crowning himself "Rama-Tut," he lords over his new subjects and uses his futuristic tech to make himself seem like a god. That is, until the Fantastic Four show up to end his reign.
After escaping to the 20th century, Rama-Tut meets Doctor Doom and uses Doom's distinctive armor as inspiration for his next supervillain identity, the Scarlet Centurion. However, he's again defeated by Earth's heroes and attempts to return to his own timeline.
This is where Kang the Conqueror is born. Richards accidentally travels forward too far in time, arriving in an era when human civilization has collapsed. As the only person left who understands the advanced but forgotten technology of the 40th century, the newly minted Kang is able to quickly conquer his new timeline and even extend his new empire beyond Earth's borders. Not content to be ruler of a futuristic empire, Kang begins a recurring game of toying with time and attempting to rewrite history to suit his own whims.