Kang Can Rewrite Existence And Shatter Timelines In Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania
The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn't afraid to repeat itself. Sometimes, that means we're lucky enough to get legacy characters. That's how we got to see Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) don the mantle of Captain America, how Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) lifted Mjölnir and transformed into The Mighty Thor, and how Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) survived an accidental gamma-irradiated blood transfusion to become She-Hulk.
Other times, it means that we're stuck watching Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) rehash the same emotional beats in every single project. In fairness, Tony Stark spent most of his MCU tenure doing the same thing, except with guilt instead of grief. Could we provide more examples? Sure, but you've undoubtedly filled in the blanks for yourself, for better or worse.
Plus, we want to get into the reason why you clicked on this article, because no one exemplifies this circuitous mentality better than the MCU's next Big Baddie, Kang (Jonathan Major). First introduced in the Disney+ series "Loki" as He Who Remains, Kang the Conqueror will make his big screen debut in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
It cannot be overstated how interesting Kang could be ... it also cannot be overstated how boring he could be, but that's a lot of stating, so we're going to aim a little lower; somewhere in the normal range. Let's get nerdy for a second since the latest trailer starring this guy made some big promises.
A Kang crash course
A quick Kang crash course, first. In "Loki," we met He Who Remains, the variant of Kang to discover the existence of the multiverse. His normal human name is Nathaniel Richards (of no direct relation to Mr. Fantastic of "The Fantastic Four," probably), and he accidentally shared his discovery with every other version of himself. That's where the doofus messed up because his infinite variants — many of whom go by the name Kang the Conqueror — are decidedly less friendly. How less friendly? Well, they kind of triggered a Multiversal War in their collective efforts to invade each other's universes. The whole thing was a mess.
He Who Remains, or Lil' Nate, as we like to call 'em, did some extensive multiverse timeline pruning (read: rampant and merciless universe slaughter) to stop the rampant and merciless universe slaughter, and he'd still be doing that right now to keep his variants at bay if it weren't for Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who turned He Who Remains into literal remains. Without his lethal vigilance, the Kang variants were once again permitted to spread, and that's why Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has to deal with Kang the Conqueror in the upcoming "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
A different kind of killer
In the latest trailers and a featurette for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) describes Kang as someone who can "rewrite existence and shatter timelines." What a delightfully ominous thing, right? Now, in the trailer, this little cautionary chatter is given without visual context, so we're going to have to make some assumptions. Van Dyne seems to be saying that this variant of Kang possesses similar abilities to that of He Who Remains, who devoted his life to rewriting existence and shattering timelines. Different reasoning, sure, but same results. We also know that this variant is called Kang the Conqueror, which is not a title given to people who believe that great power comes with great responsibility. Nah, this guy thinks he's burdened with a glorious purpose, and will almost definitely wipe out entire universes just to prove a point.
There is a school of thought that Kang the Conqueror will kill Ant-Man. The evidence is pretty strong, too. It's the end of Ant-Man's trilogy, most of the original heroes have said goodbye, and the MCU is, as we've previously noted, moving forward with legacy heroes. Speaking of, guess who gets a bigger role in the third "Ant-Man" film? His daughter, Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), whose comic counterpart becomes a member of the Young Avengers. Yeah, Kang is totally going to kill Scott ... provided that Phase 5 of the MCU wants Kang to be interesting.
Too much of a good thing?
Here's the make-or-break point. The MCU has set Kang up as the next Big Baddie. Functionally, he's Thanos 2.0 (Josh Brolin), which means that audiences already have a road map in their heads. We also know that a variant of Kang will be the antagonist of "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" and that he's sure to crop up in other places, too, like the second season of "Loki." He could appear anywhere, and as a narrative device, it's fascinating to see potentially endless variants of the same villain. Done properly, this can build a sense of overwhelming dread. After all, how are the heroes supposed to defeat someone who exists ad nauseum?
That said, Kang can lose his flavor fast. If he appears too frequently, or if his multiple variants are too similar, or if the stakes behind his appearances are too low, he'll become stale. By all accounts, Jonathan Majors is going to be incredible, but his task is heavy ... and if the writers don't come to the table in a big way, then he'll be left adrift in a ruinous sea of repetition.
So, we look to "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" as a sort of indicator for what is to come. If Kang is allowed to matter, a boundary few villains are allowed to cross, we'll see that precedent sooner rather than later. Will he kill Ant-Man? We don't know. No other death in that film would cause that same impact. Will he actually get to rewrite existence and shatter timelines? Probably not in any significant way. Makes for a cool threat, though.