Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may not have gone down well with critics and a certain number of fans, but there was one aspect of the film that most people can agree was fantastic, and that was Jonathan Major’s performance as the threatening Kang the Conqueror. Though we had already seen a variant of Kang prior, this version brought along a new level of menace and bitterness, brought on by his exile to the Quantum realm, but who put him there and why?
We are first introduced to Kang through Janet’s flashbacks when she recalled finding Kang stranded in the Quantum realm, injured, and with his ship broken. He plays a sympathetic character at first, assuring Janet that they will both be free and that he can give her back the lost time with her daughter Hope. Together they aim to fix the energy source for his ship, becoming friends in the process, and eventually succeeding in repairing the core.
Once the ship is fixed, due to the fact that it is neurokinetic and linked to Kang’s mind, Janet sees into Kang’s past, sees the destruction he has wrought, and discovers that he had not crash-landed in the realm; he had been exiled “outside space and time.” She doesn’t know who sent him there, but audiences come to discover exactly the reason Kang was trapped in the Quantum Realm, with a sabotaged ship.
Kang the Conqueror was exiled by the Council of Kangs. He had grown too hungry for power, too destructive, wiping out planets, and universes, resulting in entire timelines destroyed. The Council serves as the ultimate authority over all Kang variants, ensuring that not a single one of them becomes too powerful. The Conqueror wanted to completely destroy the council and remain the only one. If this were to happen he could rule the multiverse, manipulating the timelines to create them and bend them to his will.
Though the Conqueror is by no means an easy foe to take down, he could not stand against the entirety of the Council, which is made up of many Kangs that have their own intelligence, cunning, and brutality. The fact that they could not kill him though, and could only banish him, shows just how formidable an opponent the Conqueror is. We are left with the impression though, that we still don’t know who the lesser evil is, the Council, or Kang the Conqueror.
Throughout the film, he states that he is doing what is necessary by wanting to get rid of them and that their presence is more of a threat than himself. Scott himself questions if they did the right thing at the end, with a growing sense of foreboding that by finally removing Kang the Conqueror, they may have set the wheels in motion for something much, much worse. We also got this impression in Loki season one, where another Kang variant warns Loki and Sylvie of the damage that would be caused by killing him.
He Who Remains changed the entire multiverse by creating one sacred timeline in order to keep the other Kang variants at bay. With his death at the hands of Sylvie, the timelines were freed and with them, the other Kangs came back into existence, setting off the chain of events that will lead to the next two Avengers films at the end of the Multiverse Saga. Thanks to Scott and Hope having kicked Kang the Conqueror into oblivion, his character for all intents and purposes appears to have kicked the bucket.
We were then treated to a glimpse of the Council of Kangs, who somehow are aware of his defeat and make some rather ominous threats towards the ones who managed to take down one of their own, a man not even they could defeat. This looks to be the big threat that our heroes will face throughout the saga, though we don’t know if there will be one specific Kang that causes the most trouble, or whether on onslaught will take them on. We know we will see another variant, Victor Timely, in the upcoming second season of Loki.
The future of Kang, though, is a little uncertain within the MCU after Majors was arrested for assault and domestic abuse. The actor’s future hangs in the balance, and Marvel Studios have so far not said anything regarding his future involvement in the franchise. They are likely awaiting the verdict from his trial before making a decision as to whether he will continue to play the big bad of this saga or potentially find someone to replace him.
