The director of the upcoming Marvel film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Peyton Reed has teased Kang the Conqueror as one of the most formidable antagonists the Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen. Reed revealed this at the Brazil Comic Con Experience 2022 panel that included Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Jonathan Majors, Evangeline Lilly, and Paul Rudd. Lilly and Rudd play the Wasp and Ant-Man respectively while Majors will be portraying Marvel's new big bad Kang.
Following the numerous films that Marvel has released in its ongoing Multiverse thread without a worthy threat, the studio is finally bringing out one of the most powerful villains in Marvel Comics: Kang the Conqueror.
Reed had previously stated in an interview that the villain will have a profound impact on the MCU. A variant of the same character was originally introduced in the Disney+ series, Loki, where he was referred to as He Who Remains, the man at the end of time and the only one powerful enough to prevent a multiversal war. Now, one of his variants will be playing a more central role in the forthcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
According to Reed, this film will open the fifth phase of the MCU on a high note, especially as its antagonist, Kang, is more formidable than all the former villains in the franchise, even Thanos. He further said the Kang will appear in Ant-Man 3 is different from the one that we saw in Loki. In his words: I think that He Who Remains in Loki is very different than Kang the Conqueror in our movie. They're Variants, but they're extremely different people. Kang is someone who has dominion over time, but he conserves his energy. He's a very, very scary character to deal with, as Ant-Man and Wasp will find out first hand. Although Reed didn't add more details to how Kang will surpass Thanos as a more villainy character, it is difficult to imagine a more badass villain than Thanos who wiped out half of all lives in the universe before the Avengers undid it. However, Kang is a complex character.