Credit: Marvel StudiosIn Loki, fans saw Jonathan Majors appear as He Who Remains. The man in control of the timestream.
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He dictated the timeline and allowed Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie to make it into the Citadel. He Who Remains offered them a choice. Take over his spot and control the timeline or destroy the timeline and allow his variants to take control.
Any Marvel fan remembers when Sylvie thought He Who Remains was bluffing and killed him, only to realize what she had done. Loki Season 2 will continue exploring what happens when the MCU has unleashed Kang the Conqueror back into the timeline, but that won’t be the next time we see the villain.
Kang will appear in several MCU movies, and his story is unique because he is a time-traveling menace who might not be the strongest villain but is a mastermind with one goal. He wants to rule the Multiverse and will try to do whatever he can to take it.
Who is Kang the Conqueror?
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Kang is unique in the Marvel universe because his original self is from the future. As a descendant of Nathaniel Richards, Kang managed to find his ancestor’s time machine and was able to crack time travel when his world was forced back into the dark ages.
Interestingly enough, Reed Richards is related to Kang the Conqueror, while other iterations have teased that the villain was a descendant of Doctor Doom. The villain has fought many super hero teams, such as the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, who always are there to stop him. Sometimes, the villain is stopped by his other variants because some variants don’t want a variant of themself ruling the Multiverse.
Here’s an excerpt from Marvel explains how Kang managed to leave his timeline and begin his conquest:
Nathaniel Richards was born in the alternate timeline Earth-6311, aka Other-Earth. In this reality, the Dark Ages never occurred and technology developed without interruption. Their timeline having diverged circa 300 AD, the people of Other-Earth made their first moon landing in 900 AD, which became the first year of their new calendar. After a peaceful era, during which a lunar colony was established, a Great War between the colony and Earth destroyed the moon and plunged Other-Earth back into a primitive state. Nathaniel Richards of Earth-616, attempting time travel, reached Other-Earth and settled there; he used his knowledge to help rebuild that world and married Cassandra, daughter of the Matriarch of the Eyriennes. He became known as both the Warlord (erroneously) and the Benefactor.
Approximately 1900 years later, in the calendar year 3000, Nathaniel Richards’ descendant and namesake was born into an age of peace and enlightenment thanks to his ancestor’s efforts. At age 16, the young robotics student Nathaniel develops a working Growing Man stimuloid model. However, his throat is slit by a bully, Morgan, causing him to spend the next year hospitalized. While recovering, he studies cross-dimensional recordings of the heroic age of Earth-616, brought to his reality by the Benefactor. At age 25, Nathaniel discovers the Benefactor’s citadel, his former fortress, and a long-sealed chamber, which contains part of a time machine, and plans for its operation.
Why Is Kang So Dangerous?
The scariest thing about Kang is that you are facing an enemy with infinite lives. Sure, some variants of Kang don’t want to rule the Multiverse, but most do. If the Avengers defeat one version of Kang, they will inevitably fight another.
If several variants of Kang work together and combine their forces, then that could be enough to take down the Avengers and any other super hero team in the MCU. Kang isn’t a villain you can easily defeat with the Multiverse existing because it will be a never-ending problem. The only way to truly be safe from Kang is to end the Multiverse.
In Loki, that’s what He Who Remains does. He won the Multiversal War by removing one timeline away from the others and had complete control. This allowed him to be safe from his other variants while preserving a timeline away from the destruction and tyranny of Kang.
As Loki and Sylvie find out their timeline had every moment orchestrated by He Who Remains, so in the end, Kang has always influenced the MCU and allowed certain moments to happen.
How Many Different Variants Of Kang Are There?
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Kang has been called many names in Marvel Comics. Kang the Conqueror, Scarlet Centurion, Rama-Tut, Immortus, Ironlad, Nathaniel Richards, and Doctor Doom. The MCU might throw in a few different versions of Kang, but the villain has a plethora of different identities.
Not all of Kang’s variants are bad, as Ironlad actually joined the Young Avengers to hunt down his evil variants and prevent himself from conquering the universe. While Kang has had a few different variants, the bigger MCU projects might choose not to adapt all of the versions of Kang for the MCU.
Moon Knight did confirm that Rama-Tut exists in the MCU. Still, Scarlet Centurion might not make it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe due to the villain being a minor nuisance to the Fantastic Four for a little bit. Iron Lad can appear as part of the Young Avengers in the MCU and help take down his evil variants.
The MCU can easily show fans several of Kang’s variants and explore this wackier side of the villain without going too weird as the comics did. This will for sure make Kang a lot different from Thanos as other universes will have different versions of the villain while Thanos mostly stays the same in the Multiverse.
Why Is Kang the Villain Of the Multiverse Saga?
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With the Multiverse finally playing a role in the MCU, Kang makes perfect sense to be the next major villain. One thing that the Infinity Saga did well was introduce Thanos as well as the infinity stones, so that way fans knew what to expect.
Phase Four has established that the Multiverse was unleashed after He Who Remains dies. This variant of Kang had successfully taken himself out of the timeline and prevented his universe from dealing with his more aggressive variants.
A Multiversal War has already happened in the MCU due to several variants of Kang wanting to control all of the Multiverse. This will most likely happen again as the problem for the Avengers isn’t dealing with one Kang but an infinite amount.
This means that fans will get to several versions of Kang, which will be very different from Josh Brolin’s Thanos, waiting until Avengers: Infinity War (2018) to have a major role. Now, Kang can appear in several MCU projects and build up the villain’s arc as super heroes learn from their first few encounters how dangerous Kang is, but that doesn’t mean that all of the super heroes will be able to defeat Kang alone.
What Are Kang’s Abilities?
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Kang is a genius who is a great inventor. One of the perks of being from the future is that Kang has access to much more advanced technology, which has led to the villain having superior weaponry and gadgets.
The Avengers won’t beat Kang if they try to use brute force or traditional tactics as the villain is an excellent strategist and tactician. The only times Kang doesn’t win in the comics is when he is tricked, or an unexpected tactic is used. Since Kang also has a lot of resources, the Avengers have to fight his henchmen as the villain always has an army ready to throw at the super heroes.
For the most part, Kang is the brilliant scientist who became the warlord meaning that the villain might be able to hold his own in a fight, but it won’t be his strength keeping him alive but his gadgets. One benefit of ruling several universes is that Kang has a large reserve of resources to throw at the Avengers or to be able to invade more universes.
What is Kang’s Weakness?
Kang’s biggest weakness is fighting someone without his technology. Without his suit or any weapon, the villain is just a human being from the future. He has no enhanced strength or anything else besides his genius.
This means that Kang might be bested in combat, but any super hero shouldn’t expect Kang to give up so easily. His determination and willpower have led him to invade and conquer entire universes so Kang won’t surrender even if the Avengers defeat him.
Does Kang Love Anyone?
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In the comics, Kang does end up loving a certain person. Ravonna Renslayer. Shockingly, she has already appeared in the MCU as one of the leaders of the TVA. In the comics, she doesn’t love Kang immediately, which makes him try to prove his love to her several times.
Ultimately, Ravonna is swayed and becomes his lover until she dies. This causes Kang to do everything he can to bring her back to life. For the MCU, Loki might likely introduce Renslayer to Kang and set up this arc.
Renslayer could play a pivotal role in Kang’s story as he might waver in his desire to conquer if it meant he could spend his life with Ravonna. Or, if Renslayer dies, that could be the catalyst event that makes Kang go invade Earth.
How Was Kang Introduced Into the MCU?
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Kang was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Tom Hiddleston’s Loki as He Who Remains. Right away, fans learn that Jonathan Major’s character has gone by many names over the years. Some of his variants caused the Multiversal War, leading to the Multiverse almost being destroyed.
He Who Remains used Alioth — a creature capable of consuming reality and time — to vanquish the other variants and restore peace. He isolated the timeline from the Multiverse and kept the timeline away from the Multiverse until he was killed by Sylvie, who decided not to believe him.
Will Kang Be Different In the MCU?
It seems that Kang might end up changing his origins in the MCU. So far, Kang’s variant Immortus (He Who Remains) has appeared and changed much of his backstory as mentioned earlier. Kang’s origins in the comics could continue to be changed, and Marvel might ditch the fact that Kang is a descendant of Nathaniel Richards, but fans will have to wait and see.
Currently, Kang is slated to appear in four more MCU projects. In Phase Five, Kang will be the villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and Loki Season 2. In Phase Six, Kang will appear in two Avengers movies, Avengers: Kang Dynasty (2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2025).
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This means that the time-traveling villain will be in more MCU projects than Josh Brolin’s Thanos, but the movies will likely show different variants of Kang. Avengers 5 might focus on introducing the Council of Kangs with several variants of the villain working together to take over the world.
Fans will have to wait and see what Marvel has in store for Kang, but he will be the leading villain for the Multiverse Saga and might end up being a bigger villain than Thanos in the MCU.