Loki Villain: Who Plays He Who Remains (And Where You've Seen Him)

Warning: SPOILERS for Loki episode 6.

Loki season 1's finale unveiled "He Who Remains" as the main villain of the show played by Jonathan Majors. As promised in the penultimate outing, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia di Martino) got to the bottom of the mystery of who created the Time Variance Authority/TVA. Loki didn't take time unmasking the being the pulling the strings behind the curtain, and just like many predicted, it was Kang the Conqueror or at least a version of him.

Ever since the beginning of Loki, there were already doubts about the legitimacy of the TVA. The God of Mischief openly mocked the Time-Keepers who supposedly created it and continued to be dubious about the organization. His hunch was eventually confirmed upon meeting Sylvie, a female Loki variant who was unceremoniously plucked from her timeline without any explanation why. She also shared that all Minutemen were variants, just like them, contrary to what Agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) claimed. From there, the pair teamed up to unravel the mystery behind the TVA; they had some help along the way, including Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) sacrificing himself to destroying the Alioth, paving the way for the other variants' to He Who Remains' Citadel at the End of Time.

The Loki finale unmasked He Who Remains, who is played by Jonathan Majors. The 31-year-old actor's first major acting gig was portraying real-life gay activist Ken Jones in the ABC limited series When We Rise in 2017. In the same year, he also appeared on the big screen in director Scott Cooper's Hostiles as Corporal Henry Woodson. In 2018, Majors continued building his movie portfolio, starring in Yann Demange's White Boy Rick and Carol Morley's Out of Blue. That said, it was in 2019 that the actor started to really break into the mainstream market. He quickly rose to prominence after starring in 2019’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Directed by Joel Talbot, the drama film featured him as Majors as Montgomery Allen, where he garnered critical praise for his performance. In 2020, he was in Spike Lee's war drama for Netflix, Da 5 Bloods, alongside Chadwick Boseman. Majors also nabbed the role of Atticus Freeman in HBO's Lovecraft Country, which is what he's arguably best known thus far.

Lovecraft Country Jonathan Majors Atticus Freeman

This is set to change, however, as the actor officially boards the MCU. In September 2020, at the height of Lovecraft Country's run, news broke that Marvel Studios had tapped Majors to play Kang the Conqueror. The popular comic book villain will be the primary bad guy in Peyton Reed's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; outside of that, there's also an expectation that he will be the next Thanos-like villain in Phase 4 and beyond. Granted, there have been theories that the actor will appear in an earlier project; otherwise, why would the casting be confirmed for a film slated for 2023 this early? As the narrative of Loki panned out in the last few weeks, more and more clues had viewers convinced that the story's antagonist could ultimately be Kang the Conqueror. Although that's not technically accurate as Majors plays the variant, He Who Remains, in the Loki finale, this still marks the actor's first appearance in the franchise.

Now that Majors has debuted in the MCU, it's not outside the realm of possibility that he pops out in other shows and movies leading to his starring role in Quantumania. Given the ending of Loki season 1, the chances are that he also appears in season 2, but playing a different version of He Who Remains and someone who openly manages the TVA. Regardless of where he pops out again, it's safe to say that his next appearances will help shape the new overall narrative that Marvel Studios is setting up.

More: Everything We Know About Loki Season 2

Loki will return for season 2.