The season finale of Loki turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe on its head, as the God of Mischief (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) entered the Citadel at the End of Time and finally found the man behind all of their troubles: He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors).
Even though his time in the MCU was relatively short, he made a lasting impression and set the stage for a whole multiverse of new stories that will presumably introduce some of his most deadly Variants - none bigger than the almighty Kang the Conqueror, who was briefly teased in the finale's closing moments and will make his grand debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which hits theaters February 17, 2023.
While we've known for nearly a year that Majors would be joining the MCU - a report officially confirmed last December by Kevin Feige himself - his appearance in Loki came as a major shocker. When catching up with director Kate Herron earlier this week, she revealed how that initial story getting out about him being in Quantumania somewhat alleviated the pressure for the Loki team because no one was expecting him to show up this soon.
"Yeah, it was definitely because when that role was being cast, basically, it was a conversation with me, with Peyton, and then with Marvel, so we were all discussing the actors that we thought could be great and Jonathan was just an actor that all of us were like, ‘Oh my God, we would be so lucky to get him,” and I think for me, it kind of was good when that press release came out because it diverted from our show, you know, like everyone was sort of expecting him to show up in that film and I obviously knew, oh, well, it’s not Kang, but we have a Variant of that character in our show, which is so fun I think, so no, I think it was a massive honor to be part of that and launch him."
As for He Who Remains' instantly iconic entrance, she told us that it was always a scripted moment, but that Majors had some room to play with the character's quirks and make him entirely his own.
"I think honestly, the writers had written in that he came out of the elevator and that was always in there, and I think for me, there was a kind of like casualness in the writing, which was really fun, which Jonathan definitely played with and picked up and then obviously made his own and I think for me, it was from that point, it was kind of going back from that.
It was just about tension building, so like with Miss Minutes, I loved the idea of the jump scare with her because then already the audience is thinking, oh wait, we just had this horrible jump scare with her, you almost kind of expect another one, then when he appears and it obviously doesn’t happen. He’s very casually sitting in the elevator and is like, “Oh hey, what’s up?,” kind of thing, which I think is so fun, and yeah, for me, it was always about playing with expectations and I just love the kind of relaxed nature of his character. I thought that was so fun."
Loki season one is now streaming on Disney+!