SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “LOKI” SEASON ONE.
Marvel Studios’ “Loki” series closed out the other week laying the foundation for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new direction moving forward with the arrival of the multiverse and of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror (aka. He Who Remains).
Effectively being set up as the next Thanos-level threat, it’s expected we’ll see multiple variants of Majors’ Kang with the actor set to also serve as the main villain of Peyton Reed’s “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”.
With appearances further down the road likely to require him to offer a range of different performances, it also meant getting the casting of the role in “Loki” right was critical.
Kate Herron, the director of the six-episode run of “Loki,” has revealed to EW that she and Reed came together on the casting as “Loki” was in production long before the new “Ant-Man”. So they collaborated to get the right person for the job:
“I was so excited that I got to be part of the conversation about the casting of his character with the studio and Peyton [Reed]. It was a massive honor and very exciting, and he’s just an actor that we all loved.
[The character’s appeal is] in the writing, in the sense, that we want to know who is behind the Citadel and who could be there. I think the exciting thing was he tells this story about his past and who he is.
For me beyond that, then, it’s, which actor are we going to bring in? Because it’s got to be an actor with a presence that immediately grabs you, because not every actor can do that, and Jonathan is one of the best actors out there.
The fact that we got him to do this, I was just so happy because I was like, ‘We’re gonna be in really safe hands now.’ He just commands attention. That for me was the real key thing for me, just getting the casting right.”
They succeeded, the “Lovecraft Country” star offering an eccentric, off-kilter and physically active performance that managed to turn what is a three-way conversation in an office into something interesting.
Other ‘variants’ of the character in upcoming works will likely be more traditionally menacing. Majors tells the outlet he will miss one thing his recent “Loki” turn allowed him to do:
“There’s more smiling in that one performance than there has been in my other performances combined. It’s just what it calls for. I’m a classically trained clown. That’s part of my training. I’ve been at it for a long time, and to be able to exercise that was a lot of fun.”
Majors’ character has also scored his own poster which you can see below. Analytics film Samba TV has reported that the final “Loki” episode pulled in almost double the viewership of the “WandaVision” finale over each series’ first five days of availability.
He Who Remains All episodes of Marvel Studios' #Loki are now streaming on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/Ov54vi0xoz
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) July 19, 2021
