Compared to what Josh Brolin had to do as Thanos, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s last big bad got off easy compared to what’s in store for Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror. Whereas the Mad Titan was a motion-captured villain who had one goal in mind, his successor as the franchise’s newest major threat has to pull off a multitude of different performances.
We’ve already met the eccentric He Who Remains in Loki‘s finale, but that isn’t who we’ll be getting reacquainted with in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The D23 trailer that leaked online had fans genuinely worried for Scott Lang’s safety, and to further hammer that point home, Majors revealed to Men’s Health that he’s playing the character as a warrior this time around.
“I look at Kang and I go, Okay, cool. It’s a certain IP where people expect this at a bare minimum. No one should put themselves or their families in a place where they’re hurting, but your own discomfort is not necessarily a bad thing. That’s growth. It’s not comfortable, but you’re here to save the world, aren’t you? Or take over the world.”
The rising star’s conditioning coach Jamie Sawyer also weighed in, confirming that Kang is here to kick ass, take names, and leave the Avengers as a pile of blood and bone.
“He is the warrior version of Kang, so there was a focus on what that warrior would look like who’s been around through the ages and has developed every type of combat skill. It was about making him look like an imposing figure.”
Majors is a buff dude at the best of times, as those viral shirtless set photos taken during production of Creed III can confirm, so we’re a little worried to see how Ant-Man and the rest of his Quantum Realm-hopping associates get on against the MCU’s latest all-powerful adversary.
Recurring villains are a problem the superhero saga has struggled with, but by playing the part completely differently each time we see him, Majors’ Kang has a massive advantage that will keep him as fresh as it does formidable.