Jonathan Majors will make his full debut as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania this week, and ahead of the movie’s release director Peyton Reed has heaped praise on how seriously the Lovecraft Country actor has taken his role. Having to play multiple variants of Kang is not going to be an easy task, but Reed has no doubts that Majors is the right actor to take on the challenge. He told Screen Rant:
“When I cast Jonathan in the role? That was it, man. I had my eye on Jonathan because he's been so good for so long. And he's having a moment now, right? But he takes it seriously. He's such a dedicated actor. He has the physicality that Kang needed. He's a conqueror. But we talked so much about how this guy experienced his time in a loop, not in a straight line; how he's had all these different experiences, and what it’s like to hang out with someone like that. It's scary. And he just got all of that and just ran with it. And of course, for an actor to be able to play the guy, and then another guy and a guy who are variants? They're all technically Kangs, but they're all radically different characters.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Is The Biggest MCU Movie Since Endgame
While Phase 4 frustrated many fans by pulling back on the spectacle and scope of Infinity War and Endgame, the build up to Phase 6’s big Avengers movies is set to begin with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and that is something that Kevin Feige has already aluded to. While speaking to Rotten Tomatoes at the premiere of this week’s MCU release, Feige explained:
"Of all of our films we've done since Endgame, this is the one [Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania] that connects most to the bigger picture, and that's what I'm excited about. Phase 4, we introduced a lot of fun great characters on Disney+ and in theaters, all of whom will be very important going forward. But now, finally kicking off Phase 5, people are going to start to see the bigger picture as we get towards the next Avengers film. So I'm very excited for that part."
While speaking with Marvel.com, Feige almost slipped up and gave away something about Kang’s future appearances while he explained about the way the character has been developed over multiple projects. He commented:
"We were casting that role for both Loki, He Who Remains, and Quantumania, and obviously, he shot He Who Remains first, and then [Ant-Man]. But you can see already, if viewers who saw him in Loki, saw him in the trailer for Quantumania, he is such a versatile actor, he's getting a lot of great acclaim in numerous movies coming out around this time. And we've already—" Feige paused. "I almost gave you a big spoiler, but we've got lots of plans ahead for him in a great way."
We are only days away from seeing Kang take his first steps to bringing devastation to the MCU as we know it when Quantumania opens worldwide on February 17.