Even though Marvel confirmed last December that Jonathan Majors was joining the MCU as Kang the Conqueror in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” he only got that role because he was going to first appear in “Loki,” which he did during Wednesday’s season finale.
At least that’s the story according to “Loki” director Kate Herron.
“It was such a crazy situation. I was in a casting conversation with Kevin Feige, the studio, and Peyton [Reed], and I was like how am I at this table?,” Herron told TheWrap. “I think Jonathan was just an actor that we all loved. And really, to be honest, it was just a case of seeing if he was interested, which he was and then just trying to make it work with his schedule, because he’s a very busy man.”
Herron said that once Majors was on board to play He Who Remains, who in the comics, is not a version of Nathanial Richards aka Kang, he was pretty quickly cast as the time-traveling villain for the third “Ant-Man” film. “We cast him for the role at the same time,” she said. “When he was cast in that, it was because we knew he was going to be in our show first.”
Once Majors was on board to play Kang, they changed He Who Remains to be a variant of Kang.
“He’s a unique character, there’s a character called He Who Remains in the comics, but our version of that is completely different,” Herron said, confirming He Who Remains is a variant of Kang the Conqueror. “He’s a variant of that character.”
Considering the idea of the multiverse and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer’s comics history with Kang, many fans expected Majors to show up during “Loki,” at least in a cameo role. “People might have thought maybe he’ll be in one scene in episode six,” Herron said.
For a breakdown of Wednesday’s truly wild finale, click here.
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