Kang the Conqueror has lived for millennia across an infinite number of timelines. He’s had many forms in the comics and has threatened the marvel universe in a myriad of ways. And, judging by his introduction in Loki, “He Who Remains” (Jonathan Majors) is going to remain on the scene. Although with the moral dilemma he posed to Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) at the end of the series, he seems less-than-threatening. But that Kang was only one of a million different Kangs. And in the comics, he hasn’t always been a villain – self-serving and maniacal, but not always a villain. Looking at comic book history, he once even united the Young Avengers.
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But now that he is a major player in the MCU, Kang seems to have the ability not only to travel across timelines but across franchises as well. Along with Loki, he’s been announced, or implicated, as the main villain in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. And there is much chatter about a recent Easter egg placed in Disney+’s Moon Knight series. As a character designed with the mechanic to be infinite, he has plenty of opportunities to show up all over the place in the MCU. And Kang’s lore makes for some interesting plot lines capable of happening in the movies. He could very well threaten every marvel hero, in all of their separate movies, at the same time! But that would be too easy. So let’s do what Kang would do and look at all possible eventualities based on every conceivable timeline.
Historical Possibilities
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It’s possible that in Loki, the version of Kang that Sylvie killed was the powerful Immortus. Immortus was a variant of Kang that worked for the Time Keepers, which, in the comics, were real and quite similar to the illusion painted by the TVA in the Disney+ series. But while the Time Keepers turned in, Loki turned out to be robotic mannequins. In the books, they were powerful beings that gave this version of Kang the gift of immortality. Little did they know that Kang was merely positioning himself under their power so that he could one day usurp them and become ruler of all time, which may very well be the backstory of the “He Who Remains” character. Immortus also founded the Council of Kangs - a very Rick Sanchez-ian type collaborative body that coordinated Kangs across all sorts of timelines.
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While Kang explained the outline of his origins in Loki, he managed to skirt his way around giving any details. While Kang tells us that he was a scientist with a proclivity for time travel, he doesn’t mention that his name was Nathaniel Richards. If that name sounds familiar to you comic book buffs, it’s because this pre-Kang human was likely a 31st century descendant of Dr. Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, at least in one timeline. And one of these personas did eventually become a version of Dr. Doom, a premise on which the MCU could introduce The Fantastic Four.
Where He’s Already Shown Up
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While the nature of Kang’s being allows for infinite possibilities, his story in the comics is infinitely complex and manages to connect itself beyond the regular “because I said so” explanations. For example, one of Kang’s incarnations journeyed back in time to be a Pharaoh named Rama-Tut. He was trapped in the past without a time machine until crossing paths with Dr. Doom, who inspired a certain vein of evil in him. This caused him to create a persona named the Scarlet Centurion, who was defeated by the Avengers before returning to being Rama-Tut. Now that he had the time-traveling technology from Dr. Doom, he went to the future to conquer planets and gave himself the title of the conqueror. It’s very confusing, and Scarlet Centurion doesn’t seem likely to show up in the MCU, but Rama-Tut’s funky headdress was recently seen on the back of a cultist’s jacket in Moon Knight.
Kang also once orchestrated a coliseum-type tournament into which he forced the Avengers. The plans – and their eventual downfall – involved the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum’s character in Thor: Ragnarok) and the Black Knight (a character hinted at in the post-credits scene of Eternals, who will be played by Kit Harrington), two characters who already exist in the MCU. It’s possible that MCU might explain Hulk’s disappearance after the battle with Ultron and retcon the arena on Sakaar into being part of this Kang storyline.
One of the most intriguing narratives involving Kang, which seems like the most cinematic, is the story of Iron Lad. There is a version of Kang that showed a young version of himself all the chaos he would cause in the future. This young Nathaniel Richards became disgusted and traveled to the Heroic Age with a suit of Iron Man type armor. Once there, he formed the Young Avengers, whom Disney has been slowly, quietly introducing over the past year. It’s tough to predict a storyline like this with how the universe is now, but all the pieces are there. Kang might be more than just a villain. He could be the worst and best thing to happen to the MCU.
