Loki Set Up A Villain Even Bigger Than Kang

Caution: spoilers ahead for Loki.

Kang the Conqueror's MCU debut isn't even the worst thing to come from the Loki season 1 finale. Even before the God of Mischief slithered onto Disney+, Marvel fans had suspicions that Kang the Conqueror would be revealed as the main villain behind the TVA. From the presence of Ravonna Renslayer (Kang's comic book love) to a suspiciously Kang-like Time-Keeper statue, all signs pointed toward an appearance from Jonathan Majors ahead of his confirmed gig in Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Fortunately, this wasn't another Mephisto incident, and Loki's finale did indeed reveal Kang as the true threat... in a manner of speaking.

As Loki and Sylvie discovered in the Citadel at the End of Time, the Time Variance Authority was devised by He Who Remains (played by Majors). Originally from the 31st century, a He Who Remains variant discovered the multiverse and learned how to traverse it, meeting various different forms of himself. Predictably, some of these variants were evil and began waging war against other realities. He Who Remains isolated his own time stream, turned it into the Sacred Timeline, and founded the TVA to prune away any diverging paths, thus preventing Kang and the other evil variants emerging. When Sylvie kills He Who Remains, all that hard work is undone, and the final Planet of the Apes-esque shot of Loki season 1 confirms Kang has come a-calling.

Crucially, He Who Remains (nor anyone else) never actually uses the name "Kang." He explains only that some of his variants are evil, and these folks need to be suppressed. Though fans can see from his statue that the new TVA's new boss is Kang, Marvel's green and purple conqueror is just one of many villainous He Who Remains variants. This potentially means that other versions of Kang from Marvel comic lore could appear in the MCU - variants who harbor sinister intentions, but aren't Kang the Conqueror. And the variant who should concern the Avengers most gravely is Immortus.

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In the Marvel comic books, Immortus is essentially a far-future incarnation of Kang the Conqueror, who assumed control of Limbo and acted as the guardian of time on behalf of the Time-Keepers. Though both are formidable villains, you'd be forgiven for assuming Kang is more troublesome than Immortus. After all, the former is a literal conqueror or worlds, and the other is supposed to be a protector. But while Kang might be more open about his bad intentions, Immortus' villainy is more devious. Immortus bends the flow of time to his will by making Iron Man xenophobic, or by preventing Scarlet Witch from having children (a possible connection to WandaVision?). So problematic was Immortus, the Avengers and Kang even teamed up to thwart him. And while Immortus isn't necessarily stronger than Kang (he doesn't possess any powers still), he does have considerably more expertise as a time traveler by virtue of being much older.

Within the context of the MCU specifically, Immortus is arguably an bigger threat than Kang because the Avengers have an uncanny knack for self-destruction. When it comes to punching baddies and kicking ass, there's none better than Earth's mightiest. But the most successful Avengers villains are the ones who sowed seeds of division among the heroes - like Baron Zemo, who split the group in two with surprising ease during Captain America: Civil War. As dangerous as Kang might be to the MCU, Immortus' manipulative nature is the Avengers' kryptonite (or the nearest Marvel equivalent).

The most intriguing twist here is that Immortus needn't be played by Jonathan Majors, since Loki proves that variants can look completely different - even down to their species. This means Immortus could hide in plain sight before his true identity as a future Kang is revealed, adding an element of surprise to the sudden glut of Kang variants popping into the MCU's multiverse. When Immortus will arrive and what he'll look like when he does could form a key MCU mystery going forward. He could be a TVA grunt, a Stark Industries employee, or the resident of a zoo reptile pond. Whatever form Immortus takes, he'll be bad news for the Avengers.

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Loki season 2 has been confirmed for Disney+.