Who Is He Who Remains on Loki?
Massive spoilers for the Loki Season 1 finale past this point! Seriously! In the final episode of Loki Season 1  and yes, if you stayed through the end credits, you were treated to the official news that Loki will return in Season 2  titled For All Time. Always. we meet a character who is only referred to as He Who Remains. The character is played by newly Emmy nominated actor Jonathan Majors, and hes about to be the Marvel Cinematic Universes next big villain. Meet Kang The Conqueror, folks, and hes here to wreck all your timelines. Okay, actually, hes not quite Kang the Conqueror, the blue-masked Avengers villain from Marvel Comics, at least not how we meet him on Loki. In the show, Majors is playing a variant of Kang, one who managed to win the multiversal war with all his other selves, from other timelines, and has been pulling the strings of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) in order to keep himself as the one variant in charge. In fact, at no point in the episode does anyone call him Kang, or any of the other names he uses in the Marvel Comics: Victor Timely, Pharaoh Rama-Tut, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus, or Nathaniel Richards (among many, many other names). Instead, as Miss Minutes (Tara Strong), the animated clock who seems to be helping the TVA but is actually working for Kang, calls him, hes He Who Remains. Thats an appropriate name for a being who has existed virtually as long as the current Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) timeline, someone who has worn out all use for names and, as we see by episodes end, his own life. But the final moments of the Loki finale tease a very different variant of He Who Remains, and thats most likely someone who will be referred to as Kang the Conqueror (Majors character even jokingly refers to himself, or notes that people have called him a conqueror, earlier in the episode). Thats what youre seeing in that very final shot as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) discovers that not only does Mobius (Owen Wilson) no longer know who he is, but the statues of three very fake space lizards who were purported to be the Time Keepers in the TVA lobby no longer exist, and instead have been replaced by one statue: a statue of Kang. In case you couldnt quite place him, hes best known for playing Atticus Freeman on HBOs canceled Lovecraft Country, a role that nabbed him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series just yesterday (July 13). Big week for Jonathan Majors! Hes also appeared on screen in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Da 5 Bloods, and upcoming in The Harder They Fall, and most importantly our own Meghan OKeefe is super horny for him. Big week for Meghan OKeefe! Clearly this isnt the last time were going to see Majors as Kang (or He Who Remains, or any other names), and hes being set up as a Thanos level villain for the MCU. We dont yet know when Loki Season 2 will premiere, but we do know Majors next confirmed appearance as Kang: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The third Ant-Man movie is currently filming in the UK, and is expected to be released as February 17, 2023. We dont know many details about the plot, but considering the previous Ant-Man movies have teased the time-twisting Quantum Realm, and given the title, its fair to guess that Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and company doing a little exploration of the timeline might pique the interest of a certain green capelet wearing villain (that would be Kang). The upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Set to be released on March 25, 2022, given the title, and the multiverse going a little cuckoo at the end of Loki Season 1, as well as Tom Hiddlestons rumored appearance in the movie, its possible we could see some sort of Kang tease or appearance in the sequel. And theres a potential for He Who Remains to pop up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which comes out in theaters on December 17, 2021, as that is another movie that will be dealing with some sort of multiversal insanity. Theres also, and Im just going to throw this out there, a very strong Marvel Comics connection between Kang and the Fantastic Four. You might have noticed the name Nathaniel Richards earlier on, and thats because in some iterations  variants, if you will  of the character, hes a distant, 31st Century descendant of Reed Richards, the stretchy, smart member of the Fantastic Four. Depending on which comics you read, though, hes also a descendant of Fantastic Four arch-enemy Dr. Doom, and sometimes hes a Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt. Look, comics have been running for a long time, and theyve gotten pretty weird. Point being, with a new Fantastic Four movie on the docket (though currently undated), theres every chance that Nathaniel Richards could show up, or be teased in that movie. He could also  and Ill shut up and stop speculating after this  show up in a potential Young Avengers movie or Disney+ series, since a younger, more hopeful version of Kang dresses up in Iron Man armor on that team in the comics, and calls himself Iron Lad. But whatever you call him  Kang, He Who Remains, Immortus, Nathaniel Richards, or Iron Lad  welcome your new MCU Big Bad. Theres an infinite number of him, and most of them are very, very bad news. Stream Loki on Disney+