To think, everything in Loki occurred because Tony Stark fumbled the space stone while on the Endgame time heist.
At long last, the curtain has been pulled back, and the MCU has introduced us to the next big bad. Unlike Thanos, which took the MCU a decade to build up and complete, Kang will affect things differently.
Jonathan Majors made his debut as Kang, or at least a variant of him, in the season finale of Loki. You see everyone going crazy about the appearance, but what does it really mean?
Kang has a very convoluted story in the comics. It's obvious that initially, much of his backstory was not planned. Several reiterations, time-traveling shenanigans, and resets have made this Marvel villain's history one of the most complex in comic history.
Let's start with the basics though. Buckle in.
In the comics, Nathaniel Richards (the father of Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic) was a time- and multiverse-traveling genius who lived in the Earth-616 universe. Earth-616 is the Marvel comics' "main" universe. He traveled into the future of Earth-6311, and brought everlasting peace to the planet. From then forward, he was known as the Benefactor.
Still following? Good.
There isn't a clear answer for whether Kang came from the Benefactor's bloodline, via Reed Richards, or Doctor Doom's lineage; however, a young man named in honor of the Benefactor was born centuries later on Earth-6311.
This young man, Nathaniel Richards, lived in a time of peace and became obsessed with Earth-616. After discovering time-traveling machinery, he is able to go back in time. It is here that he first meets the Fantastic Four.
At this point in time, Nathaniel Richards traveled back to ancient Egypt and became Pharaoh Rama-Tut. He was defeated by a time-displaced Fantastic Four and got caught in a time storm that stranded him in present-day Earth-616.
While in "the present," Nathaniel Richard meets Doctor Doom, his possible ancestor. The meeting inspires him to ditch his Pharoah persona and create a new one, the Scarlet Centurion.
The Scarlet Centurion didn't last long. He was defeated by the Avengers and fled back to his universes' future. However, Richards overshoots his jump and lands in the future of his future, which is war-torn. Using his knowledge of different timelines, he creates technology to conquer the planet among the madness. It is here that Kang the Conquerer is born. He conquers endlessly until he grows tired of his time. Kang wants to return to the time of the Avengers, where he can boast dominion over the age of heroes.
And this is where we really begin Kang the Conquerer's battle against the Avengers.
The Kang I just gave a history lesson on is Prime Kang. However, many of his variants exist across the comics. Immortus and Iron Lad are the most popular.
Iron Lad is a young Kang. Kang travels back in time to stop a bullying incident in his own past. However, his child self is so horrified by his future self that he escapes, heads back to the time of heroes, and converts to a hero himself. He becomes the "Iron Man" of sorts of the Young Avengers. As Iron Lad, the young Kang tries to prevent his bloody future.
Then there's Immortus...
Immortus is a future version of Kang that is less evil, and a little more neutral, yet still as dangerous. He has helped the Avengers battle his past self (Kang the Conquerer), but is also a master manipulator. Immortus spends a lot of time being a thorn in all his other variants' sides because he tries to guide their pasts and manipulate time. He also works for the Time Keepers in a sense, something that angers his past self (Kang the Conquerer). This leads to a battle between Kang and Immortus that eventually splits their existence into two separate variant entities, instead of being a past and future version of the same person.
...and that is the SHORT (and incomplete) version of Kang's history in the comics.
But was that Kang in Loki, or somebody else?
Well, it's obvious that the MCU will switch and place things as it pleases. Much like how they made Iron Man create Ultron instead of Ant-Man, we're sure this villain's past will be toyed with.
However, Jonathan Majors' debut (and "death") in Loki will have major ramifications moving forward. Fans suspect that the Kang who Sylvie kills in Loki is Immortus, because of the medallion he is wearing. That would make sense — however, the MCU has already kind of given him a name...He Who Remains.
He Who Remains is another character entirely in the comics. He is the creator of the TVA and a master of time, but he is not Kang.
So the MCU is already playing with Kang lore. Either they are making Immortus and He Who Remains the same person in the series, or who we saw was another variant altogether. But that is neither here nor there. What we do know is that Kang the Conquerer is in power by the time Loki gets back to the TVA. And Sylvie has restored the multiverse.
So what does this mean for the MCU?
It means that anything is possible. The existence of the multiverse also allows the MCU to bring back anybody. Thanos, Iron-Man...anybody. I'm almost positive we'll see another Thanos in the far future — maybe a Secret Wars storyline with all the MCU baddies of all time vs. all the heroes? And Kang could appear literally anywhere heading forward (or everywhere, technically).
It also means that we are one step closer to the Fantastic Four film. Since Kang is of either Reed Richards' or Doom's lineage, you can bet he will appear (in some form) in the Fantasic Four MCU debut. Does that also mean we may get a Black Doom or Mr. Fantastic? Time will only tell.
Because there are so many Kangs (even a council of Kangs), the MCU can make him a never-ending villain. One may even become a Young Avenger.
Majors is set to appear as Kang the Conquerer in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which makes me feel like the film will be more like Civil War, in the sense that many Avengers will be involved. But I also think we'll see Kang before then. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home will both deal with the fallout of Sylvie's kill and restoration of the multiverse. It would be no surprise to see Kang pop up in either film, potentially as an after-credits thriller.
While Thanos took a decade, Kang will be involved for a decade.
The difference between Marvel's last big bad and Kang is that Thanos kind of chilled in the back for a reaalllyy long time. He appeared in Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy for tiny scenes, but most of Thanos's screentime exists in Infinity War and Endgame. It took years to build up to one big event.
Stephen McFeely, who co-wrote all three Captain America films, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame, once said that Phase 4 (and the future of the MCU) would head in several different directions.
Storytelling is about to change in the MCU, and I'm all in.
"It’s almost inevitable, when you keep making these things and they’re all connected, it cannot be on one straight line or you’re gonna get incredibly repetitive after a while. So it has to spread," said McFeely.
Unlike the three preceding phases that all built up to one massive event, fans should expect several storylines to lead to separate, but interconnected massive events. Comic heads, think Secret Invasion meets The Once and Future Kang. And we've obviously opened the door to Secret Wars as well, maybe for Avengers 5 or 6.
The world of possibilities is as endless as Kang's variants.