As of right now, Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will end with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which will set the stage for the arrival of Jonathan Majors’ villainous turn as Kang the Conqueror.
Following his appearance in Loki as He Who Remains, MCU fans are excited about the prospects of Kang’s villainy in the third movie of the Ant-Man series.
In the comics, Kang is one of the bigger threats to the heroes of the Marvel world, thanks to his association with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.
This would make him an “Avengers level threat” in the MCU, which makes it quite weird that he will be the antagonist for Ant-Man in the final movie of his trilogy.
However, it could also mean that Quantumania will just set Kang the Conqueror up to be the big bad of Phase 5. But, what role will Jonathan Majors play in the next phase of the MCU?
The answer: Setting up Secret Wars.
In Marvel comics, Secret Wars was a major crossover event which saw the heroes and villains of the multiverse fight against each other in the “Battleworld.”
After the multiverse opened up with Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home, the MCU will have more stories involving different characters with upcoming movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
However, at some point, the different universes might cause confusion among MCU fans similar to the way comic book fanatics had issues with different runs of the same Marvel character.
This would mean that the MCU might want to join all these different multiverses to a single world by adapting a storyline like Secret Wars, which has been rumored to be the event movie of Phase 5.
However, while the 2015 Secret Wars comic book storyline didn’t include a puppet master like the Beyonder, who appeared in the original Secret Wars back in the 80s, the MCU might have an overarching villain in the movie adaptation by giving that mantle to Kang the Conqueror.
With Kang as the big bad of Phase 5, his trajectory in the MCU will be similar to that of Thanos, who was teased a lot in Phase 2, before he became the major villain in Phase 3 movies such as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
In the end, it will be interesting to see how Jonathan Majors’ character will play out at the end of Phase 4, and fans can’t wait to see his performance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
