Loki, it has already introduced part of the MCU’s next big villain: Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
Although Kang will make his first official appearance in the MCU in He Who Remains (also played by Majors), who was revealed to be the real founder of the Time Variance Authority. However, He Who Remains was killed by Loki’s variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), unleashing a multiversal war among his other variants, among those Kang, who in a twist ending for Loki season 1, was revealed to be the new leader of the TVA. Kang, then, is the perfect Thanos replacement in the MCU’s Phases 4-6 due to his different variants, timeline machinations, and the impact he can have on different characters and universes.
Is Kang More Powerful Than Thanos?
The concept of variants is one of the most important ones introduced in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, as they are key to understanding how the multiverse works. So far, the MCU has shown variants of Loki, Thor, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man, as well as minor characters like Baron Mordo, Christine Palmer, Peggy Carter, Captain Marvel, Professor X, Black Bolt, and Reed Richards, but the most important variants so far are those of Kang. In the comics, Kang is one of the many identities of Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-century scholar and descendant of Reed Richards’ father Nathaniel, who becomes fascinated with history. Nathaniel discovers Victor von Doom’s time travel technology and begins traveling through time, with his first stop being Ancient Egypt, where he becomes the Pharaoh Rama-Tut. Nathaniel becomes Kang when he attempts to return to the 31st century but overshoots by a thousand years, landing on a war-torn Earth he finds very easy to conquer.
Kang’s many travels through time and space have led him to come face to face with a variety of characters, and he holds a lot more power in the MCU than Thanos ever did. Thanos was able to wipe out half of life in the universe, but that was just part of the role he was given in the timeline by He Who Remains, who allowed his many destructive actions throughout the Infinity Saga. Thanos was defeated thanks to the surviving MCU heroes using time travel to get the Infinity Stones and later fight him, but Kang’s mastery of time travel gives him the upper hand, and even more as he has already fought many variants of this universe’s heroes, something Thanos surely didn’t even dream about.
Other Kang Variants That Could Appear in the MCU
As mentioned above, the MCU has already introduced two Kang variants – He Who Remains and Kang – but there will reportedly be more after his appearance in Quantumania. One Kang variant that has been heavily speculated to show up is Iron Lad, mostly as the MCU has been setting up the Young Avengers for a while now; Rama-Tut could also show up at some point if there’s more time travel for the MCU’s heroes in the Kang is a much bigger, powerful, intelligent, and dangerous villain than Thanos, and defeating him won’t be an easy task.
