Next week, with the arrival of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, Marvel fans around the world will be getting a formal introduction to the new big bad of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Jonathan Majors’ Kang The Conqueror – but not to be forgotten is the fact that we have already met an alternate version of the powerful antagonist. A multiverse variant of the character was previously and notably featured in the Season 1 finale of Loki: revealed as the being who secretly created the all-powerful Time Variance Authority.
Of course, that episode notably ended with He Who Remains being killed, inviting all matters of chaos to take over the multiverse… but have we actually started to see the real consequences of this moment yet unfold in the canon? The question of how that event is going to impact Phase 5 of the MCU is one that only gets more interesting with the release of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, which is why I took the opportunity to ask about it this week during an interview with Marvel producer Stephen Broussard.
A member of the team known as Marvel Studios Parliament, Broussard is a producer on both Loki and the new Ant-Man & The Wasp sequel, and thus has been a big part of Kang The Conqueror’s arrival in the MCU. During the Quantumania press day this week, I asked the filmmaker about how the death of He Who Remains lines up with the events of the new blockbuster and Kang’s big screen debut, and he explained that things are presently being kept purposefully vague. In his words:
A little bit unsaid at this moment, right? And to say so would be getting a little ahead of myself – but there is a logic to that a little bit too. And part of what, I think He Who Remains... I'm always checking myself, like, 'What have we talked about in person? What's actually in the text of the show?' But part of what He Who Remains said to us in Loki is that he was protecting us, right? That he had sort of walled off via the TVA – we talked about it like a terrarium, right? The 616 was a terrarium. So there is the 616, and he remains in the TVA as we know it, and then there is the multiverse, and now they are kind of meeting.
Loki was released in the summer of 2021, one of the earliest titles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4, but its relationship with the rest of the canon is complicated because of the nature of the show taking place on what can be called a different plane of existence than all other MCU movies and shows. The Time Variance Authority is established as existing outside of time and space, and He Who Remains himself is eventually met by Tom Hiddleston’s titular character at what’s called The Citadel at the End of Time. Because of this setup, there is no real way to properly determine “when” the death of He Who Remains takes place relative to other stories in the continuity – but fans have certainly been waiting for the ripple effect of that moment to hit what’s officially been labeled Earth-616 (despite the justified objections of Ms. Marvel star Iman Vellani).
The fallout from He Who Remains being murdered by Sophia di Martino’s Sylvie in the Loki finale has not yet been registered in any of the Marvel films and Disney+ originals that we’ve seen since that episode aired, but it’s only a matter of time, as it’s still expected to be seen as a massive turning point for what has been dubbed The Multiverse Saga (comprised of MCU Phases 4, 5, an 6). It’s inspired excitement and anticipation among fans, and Stephen Broussard teased what’s coming:
So there is unseen adventures out there. There is a whole world of drama that maybe we are just now getting privy to that we've been naively unaware of perhaps until now. So that, that's fun to watch that kind of crash together.
Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania is obviously a key part of everything, being the title that kicks off Phase 5, and fans everywhere will be able to see the film when it arrives in theaters on February 17. Check out our Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV guides to learn about all of the projects that the franchise has in the works, and for even more related reading, check out our ranking of the Marvel movies and our Marvel timeline.
