Jonathan Majors on the ‘audacity’ of Kang the Conqueror joining the MCU: ‘This is wild’

Kang the Conqueror is here! Jonathan Majors officially joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Avengers’ next “big bad” in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” hitting theaters this Friday. TheGrio’s Jared Alexander caught up with Majors ahead of the film’s release, diving into Kang’s comic book lore, what drew him to this character as an actor, and why an “Ant-Man” film was the perfect introduction to such a cosmic and seismic adversary.

Majors was first announced as Kang the Conqueror back in 2020; since then, fans have been eagerly waiting to see the “Creed III” star take on one the most formidable and iconic villains in Marvel Comics history. “It’s weird, isn’t it?” Majors mused when reflecting on the fact his debut is finally here. “As a variant of Kang would say: ‘This is wild!’”

As Majors suggested, what sets Kang apart from other villains is his relationship with time. Due to his time-traveling nature, there are a number of “variants” of Kang the Conqueror, all versions of the fictional scientist-turned-supervillain from different timelines. As an actor, the challenge of playing multiple versions of the same character was enticing to Majors.

“The potential of him and the audacity of Kang,” Majors said when asked what drew him to the character. “I’m sorry, he controls time? He’s intimate with time, he knows how things are going to go … he’s one of many, and yet still one? What is this?”

He continued, “You know, the audacity of that imagination is quite confronting and presents a high risk and also a high reward for those who read and follow his mythology — and, for my case, to actually step into him and embody him.”

While Kang is set to play a large part in the current Phase 5 of the MCU, his introduction in an “Ant-Man” film, in particular, is not random. “I think what happens in the picture is, you learn more about Kang, and you learn more about Ant-Man because of who they are going up against,” he explains. “You see Ant-Man grow in size, right? He competes on a cosmic level; therefore, we learn so much more about Scott Lang and Ant-Man as a whole.”

“Conversely, you’ve got Kang the Conqueror, who’s this cosmic being,” he added. “You see him in such an intimate, small, quiet way … because he is dealing with Ant-Man, he has to behave in a certain way, and that’s the cheat sheet. That’s when you see, ‘Oh, he is flesh and blood. He too is grounded.’”

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” premieres Feb. 17, exclusively in theaters.

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