Kang’s appearance in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” gave us the first glimpse at his power and left viewers eager for the Avengers’ ultimate battle with the Conqueror’s variants, in the upcoming “Kang Dynasty” and “Secret Wars” movies. But it also raises the question of what possible Avengers villains Marvel’s writers could include in the following phases.
The introduction of Kang the Conqueror in “Loki” season 1 was a chilling warning of the strength he and his variants will soon wield. The ability to control the timelines makes Kang an even bigger threat than Thanos in many ways, and could massively shake up the current state of the MCU.
While fans of comics have been expecting Kang to show up at some point in Marvel’s movies and TV series, his arrival comes at an interesting time. With the world still reeling from Endgame, the power dynamic between good and evil is as shaky as its ever been.
Phase 4 has churned out some great villain arcs so far, with Agatha Harkness, the U.S. agent, and even Wanda Maximoff. It is unclear how the likes of these characters will slot into a future under Kang’s rule. And, after Kang’s Dynasty, Marvel’s writers will be left with the problem of introducing more meaningful stakes and villains in the next batch of TV shows and movies.
What to expect after the Kang Dynasty era?
In Quantumania, the Exiled Kang revealed that he had killed a great many heroes and villains on his journey. The same is likely true for many of his variants, or soon will be. There is, obviously, no shortage of villainous characters and heroes they can pull from the expanded multiverse and comic books. However, the writers replenishing any lost characters with new additions will have to take care in preserving the overall narrative.
We also know that Kang’s variants are all working outside the natural constraints of the realm, thanks to multiversal travel. With these skills, they can wipe out countless heroes with irreversible Endgame-like consequences for Earth 616’s Universe. It could take heroes a long time to regroup and prepare for new threats.
Presuming the Avengers somehow manage to overcome the variants in Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, including the rumored Beyonder version of Kang, it will be interesting to see what unfolds. Perhaps another time jump is on the cards? As for now, we have no real idea what Kevin Feige and Marvel’s team of writers have planned for the future.
What new Avengers villains could we see?
The emergence of new villains, under Kang’s reign, could cause some trouble for the writers to make sense of. Even big names like Mephisto, Doctor Doom, and Galactus, who have all been either teased or theorized to appear soon, would struggle to overcome Kang’s current control of the TVA and timelines.
Another major character to be introduced is Adam Warlock, in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 movie. While Warlock can be a good character, he also harbors the potential to give birth to The Magus. An evil future version of the hero, who could also end up as one of the strongest villains in the MCU.
Depending on how everything shakes out, The Avengers might have to enlist these villains to take down the Time-Eater, Kang. Which runs the risk of minimizing them as individual characters for later sequences. But, without their help, Feige and other Marvel writers will run into the same issue that was asked of the Eternals, why did these powerful beings not interfere and prevent their potential extinction from Kang’s rule?
One thing is for certain, everyone is excited to see what state the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be in after the Avengers take on, perhaps their biggest challenge yet, in the Council of Kang and the army of Variants.