On Tuesday, February 7th, the cast and crew of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania – stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Micheal Douglas; director Peyton Reed; and producers Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard – sat down for a virtual press conference moderated by actor Randall Park to answer questions about where Scott Lang and this gang will be going in this hotly anticipated threequel, but also, who Jonathan Majors’ Kang really is – and what kind of threat he’ll pose to The Avengers going forward. Below, we summarized the five most important things we learned about the MCU’s new “big bad.”
1. There are multiple versions of Kang.
When explaining who Kang is, Jonathan Majors first described the character as a “nexus being, which leads to this idea of variants.” This idea means that there are “multiple versions of Kang,” which “versions being variants.” But aside from their shared name and appearance, these Kangs differ in many other ways…
2. The Kang variants live in different locations, and have different goals.
Continuing on his description of Kang as an entity, Majors elaborated to say that the Kang variants “occupy different universes, multi-verses, [and] have different intentions.” Sure, they look the same – and they’ll all be called Kang – but they’re all different beings at the end of the day (though Majors continues to work to find a “throughline between them” that unites their goals regardless, even if they go about pursuing them in different ways).
3. Quantumania‘s version of Kang got stuck in the Quantum Realm.
Due to some issues with other Kang variants, the version of Kang we meet in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has been stranded in the Quantum Realm, according to Majors – “and he has some issues with [it].” But that’s not all, as Majors adds, “when he was down there, he met Janet,” the original version of The Wasp played by Michelle Pfeiffer. And they have a history that plays directly into the plot of this threequel.
4. The secret to playing an antagonist is knowing who your antagonizing.
Majors detailed his Shakespearean approach to acting throughout the conference – on full display in his towering portrayal of Kang – but also went on to emphasize that the secret to crafting an iconic antagonist is knowing who you’re antagonizing, inside and out. In Loki, that was Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. In Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, that’s Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man – an adversary who couldn’t be more of a polar opposite.
5. Entering a role with such high expectations attached to it means Majors always thinks about fans first.
When asked “what it’s like to enter the MCU with [a role] as big as Kang,” Majors stated that, above all else, “we make it for the people,” going on to emphasize how “the MCU has established itself as not just a national pillar, but an international pillar of culture and education and entertainment,” and the key to meeting expectations is always keeping those fans in focus first and foremost.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Is Now Playing In Theaters
