‘Ant-Man: Quantumanium’ – Jonathan Majors Talks About Kang and The Villain’s Possibilities
The next MCU saga focuses on the multiverse and a big bad named Kang. Jonathan Majors and the writer of Ant-Man 3 talk about the character’s place in the MCU.
During a recent press tour for Magazine Dreams, Jonathan Majors spoke to Collider – of course, Marvel came up. The actor talked about the experience of being a part of the gargantuan franchise, saying that he’s honored to have the responsibility of bringing Kang and his variants to the screen.
“It’s exciting, the fact that… Think about theater, right? You do a play, you have no idea if someone’s coming to that show, you worked your ass off, [but] you have no idea… You’re hoping people are gonna come see the work you’ve done in that space, in that black box, for that long, right? You’re hoping it’s gonna happen.”
“With the MCU, and with Kang, there is such a beautiful sensation knowing that the work that myself and my collaborators do is going to reach people. That responsibility is something I honor and something I really take on. [There are] 50 guys outside. All 50 of those guys are gonna see [‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’]. That’s beautiful, you know what I mean? That guaranteed impact, you know?”
Multiple Kangs
Majors also alluded to the many possible Kangs that he could be over the span of this saga. We’ve seen at least two: ‘He Who Remains’ in Loki and Kang the Conqueror in the Quantimania trailers. It sounds like Majors is looking forward to playing more of them.
“[N]o spoilers here, we can take it there, but Kang has variants, you know what I mean? [There are] always variants. I’m Kang. So whatever comes through comes through, you know what I mean?”
He’s not the only one that’s talked about the MCU’s multiple Kangs. Quantumania, writer Jeff Loveness talked to SFX about the character.
“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.”
Possible Kang Variants
The Multiverse Saga’s big bad is a time-traveling megalomaniac. Due to Kang/Nathaniel Richard‘s abilities, he’s shown up all over the Marvel Comics Universe and timelines – in a Star Trek crossover. He rules planets across them all. His goal is to rule everything: every timeline, every universe in the multiverse.
‘He Who Remains’ actions in Loki point to him being inspired by Immortus. Based on his costume and weapons in the trailers, Prime Kang the Conquerer is in Ant-Man 3. They are not the only variants we could see during this saga. If they decide to get wacky, we could see Kangaroo the Conqueror or Kang the Conglomerator. These are more likely…
Spoilers for Possible MCU Plots Based on 15+ Year Old Comics Below
Rama-Tut
The first version of the character to appear in the Marvel Comics Universe, but before he was Kang. In an issue of Fantastic Four, he’s a criminal from the future that’s grown tired of the peaceful world he lives in and travels back on the timeline to conquer ancient Egypt. For kicks. He then entices the Fantastic Four to come to fight him. For kicks. He loses and goes back home to the future.
I think he’s a contender because of his connection to F4 – their movie is in the works. MCU creators have also been looking to Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s work in the 1960s for inspiration (the TVA, etc).
Art by Michael Del Mundo, Avengers Vol. 7 #4 (2017) via Marvel
Scarlet Centurion
The second name Nathaniel Richards goes by in the comics. He appears on Earth and tells the Avengers that he can help them make the planet a peaceful paradise. They take him up on it. Scarlet Centurion helps them capture every major hero and villain, claiming that their existence is keeping the planet from becoming a utopia. With this plan, the Avengers do the work for him. He conquers the planet and makes the Avengers dictators.
This won’t be what we’ll see in the MCU, though. I think we’ll see a version of Marcus Kang of Earth-6311, the son of Kang the Conqueror – or a variation of a story he’s in. One of the movies in the saga is Kang Dynasty, which is also the name of the storyline Kang and the Centurion appear in.
Avengers Vol.3 #40 (2001) via Marvel
Iron Lad
This genius kid version of Nathaniel Richards is saved from a bully by his future self (Kang the Conqueror). Kang gifts the kid a set of armor and a glimpse into the future, where he is destined to fight the Avengers. Young Nathaniel rejects this future and uses the suit to travel back in time instead. In that timeline, he takes on the name Iron Lad and forms the Young Avengers with Eli Bradley, Teddy Altman, and Billy Kaplan.
Marvel has been dropping Young Avengers members throughout Phase 4, either as supporting cast members or leading their own show. It would make sense to bring in Iron Lad as a variant.
via Marvel
