This article contains major spoilers for Loki.
With the long-awaited release of Episode 6 on Disney Plus, the first season of Loki has finally come to an end. And while a second season has already been confirmed, fans are still reeling from the highly-anticipated reveal of the series’ true villain.
Several fan theories had cropped up prior to the premiere of Loki Episode 6 regarding the identity of the Time Variance Authority’s enigmatic creator. One prominent prediction was that yet another Loki variant was behind everything, serving as a foil to the main Loki’s redemption arc and forcing him to quite literally defeat his own villaInous side. Other fans guessed that the TVA’s leader would be another comic book villain — anyone from the Beyonder to Doctor Doom.
But in the end, when Loki and Sylvie entered the Citadel at the End of Time, they found themselves confronted by a mysterious figure known only as He Who Remains. And though the name of the villain comes from a very obscure character from the comics, the actor playing him instantly got the attention of fans who keep up with MCU news. Because as it turns out, He Who Remains is played by none other than Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors: the same actor who was previously confirmed to be playing the infamous Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Since the season finale’s premiere, Marvel fans have been taking to social media with countless excited reactions to Kang’s arrival to the MCU. After all, Kang was possibly the most prominent guess for the TVA creator’s identity, so seeing that theory be proven right in real-time was surely a delight for plenty of viewers. However, it wouldn't exactly be accurate to say that He Who Remains is the first appearance of the MCU’s Kang. As is often the case in stories centered around time travel, things are more complicated here than they seem.
While He Who Remains is clearly intended to be a version of Kang, he is stated to be only one variant. There are many Kangs throughout the multiverse, just as there are many Lokis. He Who Remains states that he was originally the scientist who first discovered the multiverse, making contact with his alternate selves in the name of knowledge and discovery. However, not all of these variants were so benevolent — others cared only for power and conquest, and quickly set their sights on either taking over or destroying the other timelines. The great multiversal war that led to the creation of the TVA, as mentioned in Loki Episode 1, was fought between Kang the Conqueror and his variants.
By harnessing the power of the monster Alioth, He Who Remains was able to take control of the multiverse, defeating his variants and creating the TVA to stop the timeline from branching out into alternate universes. Loki and Sylvie call He Who Remains out on destroying countless innocent timelines, but the Kang variant claims that all his crimes were for the sake of maintaining peace and order throughout time.
He Who Remains’s controlling methods and obsession with keeping order across time are sure to surprise fans of the character from the comics. The original Kang is known for taking a much more Loki-like approach to time travel, constantly creating new timelines and variants in his attempts to conquer all of time and space. Not only that, Kang has never been the type to sit in a castle and manipulate everything from the shadows — he’s a front-line leader, more concerned with the glory of battle than actually ruling the worlds he conquers.
The MCU has changed villain motivations before, most notably in the case of Thanos, but die-hard comic fans will quickly realize that something else is up with this Kang variant. Because in reality, He Who Remains isn’t an adaptation of Kang at all — he’s an adaptation of Immortus, a prominent Kang variant from the comics. Originally appearing in The Avengers #10 in 1964, just two issues after Kang’s debut. While Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created Immortus without any clear connection to the Avengers’ other time-traveling nemesis, it was eventually revealed that Immortus was a variant of Kang from a future where he realized how much damage he and his variants were doing to the timeline, and devoted himself to defeating the other Kangs and keeping order across time.
Needless to say, the MCU’s He Who Remains is very reminiscent of the comic book Immortus — they even share similar costumes. However, one notable deviation is the inversion of the TVA hierarchy. In the comics, Immortus was a servant of the very real Time Keepers, who were created by the comic version of He Who Remains. In yet another difference between mediums, He Who Remains is not a Kang variant at all in the comics, but a nameless alien who served as the final director of the TVA at the end of time. Unlike in the MCU, the TVA has no known creator in the comics. But by establishing He Who Remains as the creator and leader of the multiverse-controlling organization, it becomes immediately clear that he’s a massive player in the MCU.
And that in turn makes it all the more shocking when Sylvie kills He Who Remains, breaking his control over time and allowing the multiverse to freely branch out once again. But as He Who Remains states before he dies, he’s been holding back countless variants of himself who are much worse than he is. And Loki soon finds out that this was no lie — mere minutes after the death of He Who Remains, Loki finds that history has been rewritten. Mobius doesn’t recognize him, and the statue of the Time Keepers in TVA headquarters has been replaced with one bearing the same face as He Who Remains, clad in an outfit that comic fans will instantly recognize as the costume of Kang the Conqueror.
And so, Season 1 of Loki ends there, concluding on a massive cliffhanger. It’s unknown how and why Kang took control of the TVA, or what he’ll be doing next following his immediate rise to power. But one thing is clear — even before he’s appeared in person, Kang has been shown to have influence that spans the entire multiverse, putting other great MCU villains like Thanos, Hela, and Loki himself to shame. With that kind of power, it won’t come as a surprise if Kang ends up being the MCU’s next big bad, serving as an overarching threat throughout Phase 4 and beyond. It’s too soon to tell how the events of Loki will lead into Kang’s big screen debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, or where else Kang might appear from there. But with Loki Season 2 already confirmed by Episode 6’s post-credits teaser, it seems that Marvel fans will be seeing more of Kang sooner than they think.