The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first three phases, a.k.a. The Infinity Saga, featured Josh Brolin’s Thanos as the overarching antagonist, although it wasn’t until Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame that The Mad Titan started to shine. Now we’re in the middle of The Multiverse Saga, and Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror is the one causing trouble for all corners of the superhero franchise this time around. Ahead of Kang’s debut next month in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, writer Jeff Loveness has discussed how he’s worked to differentiate the time-traveling supervillain from Thanos.
Along with bringing Kang the Conqueror into the MCU for the next upcoming Marvel movie following Jonathan Majors’ appearance as the Kang variant He Who Remains in the Loki Season 1 finale, Jeff Loveness is tackling Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, the character’s next officially confirmed appearance. So needless to say that Loveness has spent a lot of time getting into Kang’s headspace, and on the subject of how he makes the character stand out from what Thanos did in The Infinity Saga, the writer had this to say to SFX Magazine:
To me it’s all about the humanity. Obviously Thanos is a great, iconic villain, but he’s also a big purple CGI guy. He’s an alien from outer space. The thing I really wanted to lean into is that Kang is a human being. Kang’s also a very lonely character. We’re going to be seeing a lot of him in a lot of different ways going forward, but I really wanted to introduce the humanity and even the vulnerability of this character before he gets to such apocalyptic, Avengers-scale heights.
Like Thanos, Kang the Conqueror has been antagonizing the Avengers for decades in the comics, and now the time has come for him to shine on the big screen. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed described Jonathan Majors’ take on the character as a “warrior and a strategist” who has “dominion over time,” and throw in all the advanced technology at his disposal, one could argue he’s a bigger threat to reality than Thanos. But as Jeff Loveness pointed out, Kang is also a human being at his core, and while this is someone who obviously needs to be stopped in the long run, it sounds like Loveness has been taking steps to ensure that audiences can at least understand where he's coming from.
Kang the Conqueror, who Jeff Loveness also called “almost this infinite Thanos,” will enter the MCU picture when he crosses paths with Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang in the Quantum Realm during Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the first Phase 5 installment. He’ll attempt to come to an arrangement with Scott so that they help each other out, but as shown in the latest Quantumania trailer, things don’t end well between the two. However things specifically unfold in Quantumania, Kang will be back to wreak havoc in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty come summer 2025, although don’t be surprised if he surfaces in another project or two before then.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives in theaters on February 17. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more information on what to expect from Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, and use your Disney+ subscription to stream the Marvel movies in order, as well as the platform’s original Marvel shows.
