The MCU’s New Big Villain Kang the Conquerer, Explained by Star Jonathan Majors

By George & Josh Bate

In 2021, Jonathan Majors joined the MCU in the season one finale of Loki, where he played a version of Kang the Conqueror. In that episode, audiences learned about the existence of this villain, including the prospect of all of his variants and the havoc they cause across the multiverse. It’s here that the timelines become fractured, thus giving life to the various multiverses (and setting up the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness).

Come the end of Loki season one, that version of Kang was killed, but in doing so, his counterparts were born. That’s where Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in theaters this Friday, picks up from. As fans will know from the trailers, a new Kang variant serves as the primary antagonist of this new film, allowing audiences to get to know the villain even more.

At the press conference for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Jonathan Majors discussed his character in detail, giving fans more insight into the villain that the Avengers will face off against in the years to come.

“Who is Kang? I think that is a question that we will all be answering for a very long time. I think the quick answer to that is Kang is a time traveling super villain. He is also a nexus being. Which leads to this idea of variants. There’s multiple versions of Kang. Versions being variants. They occupy different universes, multi-verses, they have different intentions. They are all different beings, and yet something that we’re still and I’m still working on and continue to refine and refine and refine to something as a throughline between them. And that, to me, is the Kang gene.”

As Majors reveals, Kang is distinct from previous main villains, like Thanos, in that there are multiple of him all existing across space, time, and different universes. As the Kang variant in Loki discussed, he and those like him are cold blooded killers intent on destroying worlds and conquering universes, meaning that he arguably has fewer redeeming qualities than Thanos and thus making him even more evil, insidious, and dangerous.

Make sure to check out The HoloFiles’ spoiler free review of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releases exclusively in theaters on February 17.

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