Three years later, Marvel Studios' next Disney+ series is retconning a major Kang reveal from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and it changes everything. To this day, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania goes down as one of the biggest disasters in Marvel Studios' history. Not only did the Ant-Man threequel reportedly lose money for Disney, but it also firmly placed the MCU on a road that it would quickly decide to swerve off: the road to Kang the Conqueror.
Quantumania left off with a mid-credits stinger that Marvel Studios would quickly come to regret. After introducing two Kang Variants played by Jonathan Majors - Loki's He Who Remains and Ant-Man 3's Kang the Conqueror - the threequel's final tease unveiled thousands more with the Council of Kangs, every last one of which carried the actor's likeness, from Egyptian pharaohs to lizard-like aliens.
Marvel Studios couldn't have timed that commitment any worse, as Majors was arrested that same month for assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. That would ultimately lead to the MCU powerhouse actor's firing later that year, once he was found guilty of misdemeanor assault and harassment by a New York jury.
As the focus with Kang was on his many Variants, not just one, this could have had an easy solution for Marvel Studios. The MCU has made it clear that Variants of the same person can carry different faces, thanks to the three Peters' team-up in Spider-Man: No Way Home or the many Gods of Mischief in Loki's Void.
Unfortunately, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania solidified that, in a rare exception, all of the Kang Variants look like Jonathan Majors in a bid to definitively brand him as the face of the Multiverse Saga. However, Marvel Studios is retconning that notion, as X-Men '97 Season 2 will introduce a version of Rama-Tut, an Ancient Egyptian Kang Variant, who isn't played by Majors.
Unconfirmed reports claimed that Star Trek: The Next Generation actor John de Lancie will voice X-Men '97 Season 2's Kang Variant, marking the first person to play a Kang in any medium since Majors' introduction in 2021.
While Ant-Man 3 implied that every Kang bears Major's face, there are ways that Marvel Studios could narratively work around that retcon. For instance, perhaps the Council of Kangs is exclusively comprised of those with his appearance, either considering themselves above others or simply existing separately.
Marvel Studios Has Opened the Floodgates to Kang All Over Again
In the midst of that uncertain window between Ant-Man 3 and Majors' official firing, Marvel Studios faced another obstacle. Disney+ released Loki Season 2 in October 2023, which had to contend with Majors playing a key part as Victor Timely, a 19th-century scientist Variant, while he also reprised He Who Remains.
The sophomore season left off with the TVA acting as a Multiversal watchdog for Kang Variants, including one who "caused a little bit of a ruckus on a 616-adjacent realm," referring to Ant-Man 3's events. That left plenty of Kang-related threads still to continue in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, but may now be best resolved in a potential Loki Season 3 now that Doctor Doom is in the mix.
In many ways, it would be fitting if Doom were the one to tear down the Council of Kangs, establishing himself as one to be feared while also symbolically claiming the reins to Avengers 5. That would be hard to show on screen without bringing back Majors, but it could still be achieved with dialogue from someone at the TVA about all of He Who Remains' Variants vanishing at Doom's hands.
As Marvel Studios is unlikely to ever revive its original plan for Avengers 5, X-Men '97 Season 2 may be the closest fans will get to The Kang Dynasty, both through Rama-Tut's inclusion and some similar elements to its rumored storyline.
While the ship has sailed for Kang fronting an Avengers blockbuster, as that honor is reserved for a select few, X-Men '97 proves that the door may not be completely shut on the character, and he could be seen in other, smaller-scale projects again.
That's not to say that whoever voices Kang in X-Men '97 must play any future Kangs, as Marvel Studios would be wise to learn from its mistakes and spread the workload going forward. But for the time being, it would be surprising if Rama-Tut's debut in the mutant-centric animated series was more than a one-off.
Despite, of course, existing in the same Multiverse as the rest of the MCU, X-Men '97 has so far been its own thing, avoiding the pitfalls of other projects' narratives. For many, X-Men '97's standalone nature is one of its biggest strengths, and Marvel Studios would be wise to maintain that for its many seasons to come.
