Cosmic, and the antagonists
He Who Remains
Kang
Dead, and the character is retired — Jonathan Majors was fired and not recast
- Appearances
- 3
Along the chronological spine
Where the guide talks about them (13)
- The Infinity Saga = Phases 1–3 (2008–2019). Villain: Thanos. Object: the Infinity Stones.
- The Multiverse Saga = Phases 4–6 (2021–2027). Villain: originally Kang, now Doctor Doom. Object: the multiverse itself.
The Kang-to-Doom switch was a mid-course correction, and it shows in the seams. Several Phase 4 and 5 setups now point at nothing in particular. If parts of the middle feel unresolved, that's because they are.
How can Mobius be a variant if he works for them? He Who Remains abducted people from across the multiverse, wiped their memories, and gave them manufactured lives. Mobius is a variant of some ordinary man from some timeline. In Season 2 he glimpses that other life — a father with two sons — and chooses not to reclaim it. Hunter B-15 and Ravonna Renslayer are in the same position.
The reveal: the TVA's "Time-Keepers" are props. The organisation is run by He Who Remains, a variant of a 31st-century scientist who discovered the multiverse, watched his own variants wage a multiversal war that destroyed nearly everything, and won by isolating a single timeline and pruning all others. Every TVA agent is an abducted, mind-wiped variant.
Loki disagrees, and argues they should stop and think, because the alternative is a multiversal war. They fight over it. She kisses him, pushes him through a time door, and kills He Who Remains alone.
Where does Kang appear before this? He doesn't. Loki Season 1 is his first appearance — and technically not as Kang but as He Who Remains, a variant who explicitly says he is not the conqueror. Kang the Conqueror proper debuts in Quantumania (film). Victor Timely appears in Loki Season 2: a nervous early-20th-century inventor with a stammer who has no idea he's a variant of a multiversal warlord. He is neither good nor evil — the point is that Kang variants aren't all conquerors.
With Kang written out as the saga villain, both Timely and the Council of Kangs are now orphaned threads that lead nowhere.
[Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania](/title/ant-man-quantumania/) (FILM, 2023) — The Lang and Pym families are pulled into the Quantum Realm, revealed to contain an entire hidden civilisation. Kang the Conqueror is imprisoned there; Janet helped him rebuild his ship decades ago before learning what he was. They defeat him. Cassie Lang becomes a hero in her own right and is confirmed for Doomsday.
The mid-credits sets up a Council of Kangs the franchise then abandoned.
| Character | Premiered | Appeared in | Status now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thanos | Avengers (2012, post-credits) | Guardians, Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame | Erased from existence by Stark. Both versions |
| He Who Remains / Kang | Loki S1 (2021) | Loki S1–2, Quantumania | Dead, and the character is retired — Jonathan Majors was fired and not recast |
| Ultron | Age of Ultron (2015) | Age of Ultron | Destroyed — and returning in VisionQuest |
| The Collector | Dark World (2013, post-credits) | Dark World, Guardians, Infinity War | Dead, killed by Thanos offscreen |
| The Grandmaster | Ragnarok (2017) | Ragnarok | Alive, deposed, not seen since |
| Arishem | Eternals (2021) | Eternals | Alive — took three Eternals for judgment and never came back |
| Mephisto | Ironheart (2025) | Ironheart | Alive, now loose in the MCU |
| Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel | Captain Marvel (2019) | Captain Marvel, Endgame, Shang-Chi, The Marvels | Alive, mostly in deep space |
| Monica Rambeau | Captain Marvel (2019, as a child) | Captain Marvel, WandaVision, The Marvels | Stranded in another universe — the one with Beast and Charles Xavier |
| Shang-Chi | Shang-Chi (2021) | Shang-Chi | Alive, holding the ten rings. D |
| Xialing | Shang-Chi (2021) | Shang-Chi | Alive, running the Ten Rings organisation |
| Thaddeus Ross | The Incredible Hulk (2008) | Incredible Hulk, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, Black Widow, Brave New World | Alive, imprisoned at the Raft by his own choice |
| Samuel Sterns / the Leader | The Incredible Hulk (2008) | Incredible Hulk, Brave New World | Alive, imprisoned |
Kang is finished. Jonathan Majors was fired by Disney in December 2023 following a criminal conviction. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was cancelled and Doctor Doom replaced him as the saga's antagonist. He has not been recast and there is no announced plan to.
The Council of Kangs, Victor Timely, and He Who Remains's warnings about his variants are all dead ends — the orphaned threads flagged at the top of this document.
A Kang variant could turn up as background colour in Secret Wars given its multiversal scope, but nothing supports this beyond the door not being formally shut.