For a while, the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had one name written all over it.
Kang.
Jonathan Majors arrived as He Who Remains in Loki, became Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and returned as Victor Timely in Loki Season 2.
Marvel wasn’t exactly being subtle.
Kang was coming.
Then everything changed.
Majors was convicted of assault and harassment in 2023, Marvel Studios subsequently ended its relationship with the actor, and the MCU eventually moved away from Avengers: The Kang Dynasty towards Doctor Doom and Avengers: Doomsday.
Before we go any further, we want to make something very clear.
Discussing Jonathan Majors’ performances as Kang is not defending or excusing the conduct for which he was convicted.
There is a victim involved and a real court case behind what happened. That shouldn’t be reduced to an inconvenience for a Marvel movie.
But as comic book fans, there is another completely fictional question we’ve found ourselves discussing:
What would the MCU look like today if none of it had happened?
Because we genuinely thought Majors was brilliant as Kang.
And now that Doctor Doom has entered the picture, there’s one Marvel combination we can’t stop thinking about.
Doom vs Kang.
Jonathan Majors’ Kang Was Just Getting Started
Our favourite Majors performance in the MCU wasn’t necessarily Quantumania.
It was Loki.
He Who Remains was weird, unpredictable and unsettling without needing to spend every second reminding us how powerful he was.
Then Majors gave us something different with Victor Timely.
And something different again with Kang.
That was the exciting part of Marvel’s original plan.
Kang wasn’t simply one villain.
There were potentially countless versions of him.
Some could be funny.
Some could be sympathetic.
Some could be absolutely terrifying.
The Multiverse Saga was seemingly building towards these variants becoming an enormous problem, culminating in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
We’ll probably never know exactly what Marvel originally intended to do with that story.
And that’s a shame.
Then Doctor Doom Changed Everything
Marvel eventually changed direction and Doctor Doom became the major threat heading into Avengers: Doomsday.
As comic fans?
We’re hardly going to complain about getting Doctor Doom.
He’s Doctor bloody Doom.
But watching everything currently happening around Doomsday has made us wonder what the MCU could have looked like if Kang’s storyline had continued alongside it.
What if Doom hadn’t simply replaced that part of the Multiverse Saga?
What if he’d entered it?
Imagine Kang believing the multiverse belongs to him…
Only to discover Victor von Doom has other ideas.
Now you’ve got our attention.
Kang vs Doctor Doom Could Have Been Incredible
The two characters are almost perfect opponents.
Kang has time.
Doom has intelligence, technology, magic and an ego roughly the size of Battleworld.
Neither character particularly enjoys being told somebody else is more powerful than them.
Putting those two together during the collapse of the multiverse could have created something spectacular.
Maybe Kang’s manipulation of timelines contributed to the incursions.
Maybe Doom decides the Council of Kangs has caused enough damage.
Maybe Doom destroys them.
Or perhaps an Avengers movie forces Earth’s heroes into the ridiculous position of choosing which incredibly dangerous supervillain they need to temporarily work alongside.
Classic comic-book logic.
“Yes, he’s attempted to conquer reality seventeen times, but right now we need him.”
We’ve all been there.
Loki Makes The Possibility Even More Interesting
Then there’s Loki.
This is where losing Kang feels particularly noticeable to us.
Loki spent two seasons establishing variants, branching timelines, the TVA, He Who Remains and the consequences of allowing the multiverse to expand.
By the end, Loki had become something completely different from the character we first met in Thor.
He is now intrinsically connected to the multiverse itself.
And Kang was intrinsically connected to Loki’s story.
That’s why part of us would have loved to see those threads continue into the Avengers movies.
Imagine Loki, Kang and Doom all representing completely different ideas about how reality should survive.
Loki protects the branches.
Kang wants to control them.
Doom potentially believes he can save reality by remaking it.
That’s a proper Marvel event.
Could Jonathan Majors Ever Return As Kang?
This is where things become much more complicated.
Majors has spoken publicly about rebuilding his career and has returned to acting following his conviction.
We recently watched his interview with Sherri Shepherd, where he discussed what happened to his career, his faith and trying to move forward with his life.
Whatever anyone personally thinks about him, it’s difficult to ignore just how dramatically his career changed.
He went from being positioned as one of Hollywood’s fastest-rising actors — with Marvel preparing to build an Avengers movie around his character — to being dropped from the MCU entirely.
People will understandably have very different opinions about whether major studios should work with him again.
That’s bigger than Comic Movie DB.
We’re certainly not here to tell anyone that a conviction doesn’t matter because somebody happens to be a talented actor.
It does matter.
At the same time, we can separate that discussion from saying something we’ve believed since Loki:
Jonathan Majors gave a fantastic performance as Kang.
Both things can be true.
Maybe Kang Doesn’t Need Jonathan Majors
There’s another possibility too.
The MCU established the concept of variants long ago.
Marvel could eventually bring Kang back with another actor.
In fact, the multiverse gives them perhaps the easiest recasting explanation imaginable.
We’ve already seen variants who don’t look identical.
So if Marvel ever decides Kang still has a place after Secret Wars, another performer could inherit the character without undoing everything established in Loki and Quantumania.
Kang is far too important to Marvel Comics to disappear forever.
The question is whether Marvel wants audiences thinking about the character again after changing direction so dramatically.
Our Ultimate MCU What If
This isn’t an argument that Marvel made the wrong decision when it parted ways with Jonathan Majors.
And it certainly isn’t an attempt to minimise the circumstances that led to it.
It’s simply one of those fascinating MCU What If? conversations.
What if none of it had happened?
What was The Kang Dynasty originally going to be?
Where was He Who Remains’ warning ultimately leading?
What would have happened to the Council of Kangs?
And perhaps the biggest question now…
What would have happened when Kang met Doctor Doom?
We’ll probably never know.
But after watching Loki again, we can’t help feeling there was an incredible Marvel story beginning to form around Kang.
Now we’ve got Doom.
And we’re ridiculously excited about that too.
But somewhere in the multiverse, there’s probably an Avengers movie where Kang the Conqueror and Doctor Doom are standing opposite each other arguing over who gets to control reality.
We’d quite like a ticket to that timeline.
Would you have liked Marvel to finish the Kang storyline with another actor? Would you rather the MCU leave Kang behind completely, or would Kang vs Doctor Doom have been the ultimate Multiverse Saga showdown? Let us know what you think.
Be the first CMDB member to comment on this story.