Like WandaVision, Loki is a series that's spawned countless theories. However, there was no Mephisto-sized disappointment this time because we really did get Kang the Conqueror...or a Variant of him. Just like in the comic books, his story is a complicated one, but Jonathan Majors' "He Who Remains" is one of countless versions of the villain in the Multiverse.
Over the coming years, we're going to meet some of them as Marvel Studios seemingly builds to another Multiversal War. When Marvel.com caught up with Loki Head Writer Michael Waldron, he shared some insight into how the series sets the stage for Kang to be the MCU's new big bad.
"We knew that we wanted this show to be huge, and we wanted it to really end with a bang and have a huge impact on the MCU moving forward," he explains. "Knowing that Kang was probably going to be the next big cross-movie villain, and because he is a time-traveling, multiversal adversary, it just always made so much sense. I came up with that big multiversal war mythology and pitched it out in the room one day to our producers. And they said, yeah, let's go for it."
As for how the Kang we met in Loki will differ from those looking to conquer the entire Multiverse, Waldron added: "You had to leave a lot of meat on the bone in terms of how evil he could be, because that's He Who Remains' whole thing, that it's not me who you should be afraid of. 'It's the other versions of me that are going to come.’ It was trying to really hint at that terrifying evil within without going all the way there."
As you might expect, Loki director Kate Herron was similarly excited to delve into Kang's story here. "I thought his reasoning with [Loki and Sylvie] that you can take me out, but I'll be back here anyway...you're going to awaken all these versions of me. And they are much scarier than me. I really believe him when he says that," she teases.
Tom Hiddleston, meanwhile, had nothing but good things to say about his unexpected co-star.
"He came in the last lap of this series and made an extraordinary impact," the actor recalls. "And it’s quite something to do that for a story, to get to its final chapter and to introduce the character of such breadth, and depth, and charisma, and intelligence. He was dazzling. It was our final week of filming, literally. He came in and blew us all away."
"It was so exciting for me to watch because I knew that for Jonathan, as an actor, it’s his entry point into the MCU," Hiddleston adds. "To watch him come in and be so ready, and so agile, and so prepared, and so surprising. Sophia and I sat and watched him deliver this extraordinary performance of such wit and with such intelligence. It was a real thrill to watch him do that."
If there's one big takeaway from these comments, it's that Kang the Conqueror is clearly going to be a major player in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the foreseeable future. With the X-Men and Fantastic Four on the way, we could be looking at an "all hands on deck" situation for a battle against the villain that could quite easily be the Secret Wars movie we know the Russos want to make.
How do you see things playing out for Kang following the Loki finale?