Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Director Explains Kang's Thematic Importance (& What That Reveals About The Film)

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe's fourth phase ending with the film "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," the fifth phase of the MCU is set to kick off with "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." This will be the first cinematic introduction to Kang the Conqueror (Jonathon Majors) after his first appearance as the variant "He Who Remains" in the Disney+ series "Loki."

Seemingly set to be the next big bad to replace Thanos (Josh Brolin), Kang the Conqueror appears to be much more than just the villain for the upcoming film. In fact, with the next planned Avengers film being titled "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty," it seems all but certain that this character will be the next Avengers-level threat.

With "Quantumania" only a few months away, Nerdbunker recently got to sit down with director Peyton Reed and Kang's actor, Majors, to talk about the importance of Kang the Conqueror to the MCU and how that might inform his thematic importance specifically to Ant-Man's third film.

Despite a major point of "Avengers: Endgame" being that time travel was a one-and-done thing to never return to the MCU, the existence of "Loki" and now seemingly "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" appear to be playing with time travel even more. In the interview with Nerdbunker, director Peyton Reed discussed how the five-year blip that takes place in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame" will continue to have consequences in "Quantumania," as Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) daughter is now a young adult.

"The whole theme is time and how much time he's missed, and his main motivation is just, 'I want time with my daughter,'" Reed said. "And now he's coming into contact with a villain in this movie, Kang the Conqueror, who has dominion over time, and what does that mean to them?"

It seems that Reed is teasing that there might be more time travel in this film and that the main motivation for Scott's Ant-Man will have something to do with wanting time back with his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton). Perhaps Kang will be able to tempt Scott with the ability to get back the years he missed with her growing up, much like He Who Remains tempted Loki with a universe he could rule? We'll have to wait and find out.

"When we cast Jonathon [Majors] in the role, Jonathan and I talked about a character who sort of has dominion over time, and maybe has experienced all of these different things and has variants and all of that stuff," Reed said. "What does that person act like? What do they think like? What is it like to be in the presence of a person like that?"