Thanos is the best villain in the MCU. It doesn't really matter if your favourite is Hela, or Killmonger, or Zemo – Thanos will always be the biggest hitter. Not only did it take two movies and the entire might of the Avengers to bring him down, resulting in the deaths of Vision, Iron Man, and Black Widow (plus arguably of Gamora and Captain America), the entire universe was built around him and his inevitable arrival. While some movies are pure filler in the overall mythology, every movie prior to Endgame was part of the Infinity Saga, which covered Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three. Now, we're in Phase Four, which doesn't seem all that cohesive so far. After Loki's finale, that might be about to change.
Spoilers follow for Loki's season finale.
Loki's finale introduces us to Kang the Conqueror. He doesn't use that name – instead going by He Who Remains – but we know he's Kang. He talks about 'conquering', multiverse travel is extremely typical of Kang, and, the biggest clue, he's played by Jonathan Masters, who will be portraying Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Not the same Kang though, because Loki's Kang is dead, which has unleashed all the Kangs in all the other multiverses upon the world. Moving forward, Kang might be the new Thanos.
Related: The Discourse Around Queer Characters Doesn't Need To Be This Exhausting
While the MCU individually can seem quite formulaic – good guys win, bad guys lose, VFX ftw – as an entity it’s a very creative beast. Tying so many strands together fairly seamlessly for Infinity War and Endgame is no small feat. For that reason, while I say Kang is the new Thanos, I don't expect there to be a 20-film arc where he slowly grows more and more powerful in the background and then gets a double-header as the lead antagonist, culminating in every hero working together to take him down. But I do think the MCU needs a new big villain to tie everything into a neat little know, to uniting our heroes and cementing the narrative strands of whatever saga we're currently in.
It might not be Kang, but he does seem like a solid choice. Galactus, one of the few Marvel beings who is undoubtedly more powerful than Thanos, is also a possibility, but we've had no hint that he will even feature in Phase Four. Mephisto, another contender, has had so many hints by now, but still hasn’t arrived, so he's gone from favourite to red herring in many fan theories. For a wildcard pick, a fully evil Scarlet Witch – if they do take her down that road – would be a formidable foe. Only she and Captain Marvel were able to take on Thanos toe-to-toe, after all. Valentina's cameos in Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Black Widow could suggest the main villain will be a rival team – the Thunderbolts, at a guess – with US Agent and Yelena confirmed, plus the possibility of Abomination and Ghost returning, as well as the outside chance that Scarlet Witch or Kate Bishop could be folded into the squad. It's not definitely going to be Kang. But ahead of Loki, he was just another comic book big bad whose hat was in the ring. Now he's the clear frontrunner.
The most interesting thing with Kang the Conqueror is that there are multiple versions of him. In Loki, he's weary of his role of guardian against himself, and willingly accepts death. We see his power by proxy – he is in control of the TVA and in some ways is the master of the entire universe – but we don't see him fight. We don't see any tricks or combat. He's still an unknown quantity. And there's so many of him now. Ant-Man and the Wasp might kill him in Quantumania, but another Kang from another multiverse could then pop up in Fantastic Four. It's a different sort of power to Thanos – in the Infinity Saga, the central villain was unbeatable. He had an army of goons defending him, but even one on one, few Avengers could even stay in the ring with him. "All that for a drop of blood."
Kang might not be so tough to take down, at least individually. He goes willingly in Loki, but Sylvie is still able to kill him without any major effort, and all on her own. Having multiple different Kangs, perhaps working together or even competing against each other, brings a character into the Thanos role without needing to go the same route as him. Multiverse mayhem would also explain why the Eternals have chosen now to get involved, could bring in the X-Men (who have also had a major tease through Ralph Bohner), and set up What If…?, all while filling the empty void Thanos has left.
Whatever happens, the MCU has quickly shrugged off the shadow of Thanos and the big players who left at the end of Phase Three, but sooner or later, it needs to start tying things together again.
Next: The Simpsons Loki Crossover Might Be Worse Than Simpsons Skateboarding
