Marvel Studios treated attendees at their Comic-Con Hall H panel with an exclusive first look at Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which showed Jonathan Majors in his role as Kang the Conquerer for the very first time. Kang, who has been confirmed to be one of the bigger Multiverse Saga villains, is depicted in the comics as a time-travelling entity with several versions, or "variants," of himself.
Majors, who made his first appearance in the MCU during the season one finale of Loki, opened up about what it has been like to play different variants of Kang. While he remained nameless in Loki, referred to only as He Who Remains, Marvel Studios used his appearance to showcase what appears to be their plan for the super villain during phases five and six with Ant-Man 3 and beyond.
"I would say I grew up in Texas and played around with sports. The best thing about sports when you're playing the point guard or the quarterback is, a good quarterback or point guard, they have amnesia," Majors told Collider about how he approaches the difference in roles. "They don't remember the good plays, they don't remember the bad plays, they just remember they got to play the game. So that's how I am with these guys. I just play the script. Tell the story. That's how it goes." While Majors is currently confirmed for only two variants of Kang (the Loki and Ant-Man versions), Majors had to approach the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania role with a different cadence and attitude than He Who Remains. "I think the thing about Kang, even the comic books, he contains multitudes," he said. "For me, it's a great exploration of myself, just to figure out how much of myself can I explore and share? That's the opportunity that Kang and He Who Remains offers."
During the season one finale of Loki, He Who Remains explains to Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) that he created the TVA after variants of himself discovered the existence of the multiverse and tried to conquer other universes. This created a multiversal war, which left He Who Remains to guard the "sacred timeline" to ensure that his variants did not escape and start another war. He gives Loki and Sylvie the option to either kill him and guard the timeline or return to their timelines. Sylvie, who hates the TVA for displacing her all these years, sends Loki back to another version of the TVA and kills He Who Remains.
This causes the sacred timeline to begin branching out into new universes, also called "Nexus events," a problem that it seems Loki season 2 will tackle once again. While many of the plotlines in the Multiverse Saga have yet to be released, fans will see the consequences of He Who Remains' death in the next two phases.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is scheduled for a theatrical release on February 17, 2023.
Source: Collider