When Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania star Jonathan Majors was found guilty of two misdemeanour counts of assault and harassment, he was almost immediately dropped from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It was too late to change Loki season 2 by that point and the villain - originally the Multiverse Saga's big bad - has been M.I.A. ever since. On the one hand, it's quite easy to move on from Kang. He Who Remains and the Conqueror are dead, while Victor Timely was returned to his rightful place on the timeline and will likely never become "Kang."
On the other, it's deeply unsatisfying for his story to finish so abruptly, and his absence in the next Avengers movies should arguably be at least referenced somehow. Well, according to a new rumour, Marvel Studios "now have a plan to wrap up his arc."
We don't have anything to go on beyond that, though this comes after Jeff Sneider claimed that Severance star Tramell Tillman could be in the running to take over the role. The insider also said the idea of Doctor Doom killing Kang has been thrown around.
How better to establish him as a major threat than to show him wiping out the Council of Kangs in one fell swoop?
Marvel Studios first introduced us to Kang in his "He Who Remains" form at the end of Loki's first season. It was revealed that following a Multiversal War, he was the last Kang standing and created his own Sacred Timeline to rule over forever more. No branching timelines meant no more Kangs.
Having grown bored with an eternity trapped at the end of time, He Who Remains hoped Loki and Sylvie would take his place. Instead, the latter killed him, though we'd later learn it was all part of Kang's plan as he knew he'd be resurrected after the failing Time Loom destroyed the TVA and branching timelines (all while leaving the Sacred Timeline to thrive).
Loki refused to follow He Who Remains' path and instead created a new Multiverse powered by him, giving everyone free will and his friends at the TVA enough time to prepare for the war to come with Kang's Variants.
One of those was featured in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania when it was revealed the Council of Kangs had trapped Kang the Conquerer in the Quantum Realm due to the threat he posed to their plans. After the threequel's post-credits scene introduced a whole arena full of Kang Variants - all played by Majors - Loki season 2's closing moments saw the TVA briefly mention that they were keeping an eye on them.
Marvel Studios has since swapped out Avengers: The Kang Dynasty for Avengers: Doomsday, with Robert Downey Jr. set to make his MCU return as Doctor Doom (rumour has it original plans called for Earth's Mightiest Heroes to battle Kang's Variants and, ultimately, him as The Beyonder).
The idea had also been to tie everything from Shang-Chi's Ten Rings to Ms. Marvel's bangles to Kang, though we'd guess the plan now is to move on from that as quickly as possible (which should be too hard).
Avengers: Doomsday is set to be released in May 2026, with Avengers: Secret Wars scheduled to arrive in May 2027.