Given his status as the next major MCU villain, it’s fair for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania antagonist Kang to be compared to Thanos. Recently, even the Ant-Man sequel’s writer contrasted Kang with the Mad Titan.
While talking to Variety, Loveness was asked what he learned from working on Quantumania that he’ll be applying to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which Loveness is also set to write. The writer praised Kang’s actor, Jonathan Majors, and said they’re attempting to make Kang more vulnerable than Thanos.
“I just feel like we have such a great launching pad with Jonathan Majors. He’s so down for stuff. Every time I talk to him, he’s got a new insight,” Loveness explained. “We’re trying to build out new and engaging forms [of Kang] that are hopefully just as good as the ones we that we saw. I’m trying to make this a revenge story and a bit of a self-discovery story. I’m trying to make him more vulnerable than Thanos, more human than Thanos.
“I guess it’s the X-Men fan in me, but Magneto is maybe my favorite villain in storytelling. He’s such a compelling villain, because you just bleed for this guy and you sympathize with him so much. So I think we really have an opportunity to have a passionate, vulnerable villain on a crusade against himself, and the Avengers are in the way. That’s kind of the fun thing about Kang in the comics. The Avengers are more just a thorn in his side. He’s basically trying to handle his own shit, but it’s always like, Thor kind of gets in his way. He’s more about the bigger game. He represents a fun existential challenge to even the idea of superheroes — and if they’re necessary or not.”
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania was once again directed by Peyton Reed from a screenplay written by Jeff Loveness. It is now playing in theaters.