If indeed there is to be an event that casts a pall over the scale of Avengers: Endgame, it has to be magnificently epic. Introducing: Secret Wars. In this chapter, one learns about the ways of the Multiverse, witnesses a fight on Battleworld, finds out about back-stabbing variants, and quite possibly, a Warrior Kang entering the scene to ward off his competition, i.e. the more benevolent variant of himself.

With Quantumania setting off shrill alarms everywhere, the thesis that posits that Kang the Conqueror escapes the Quantum Realm and wreaks havoc upon the world seems too easy and too swift in its execution. And so, for the sole reason of adding more tension in the plot’s recipe to make the finale even sweeter in its end, there rises another theory that suggests there is more to it than meets the eye.

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror

Warrior Kang to Step Up the Game For Secret Wars Heroes

The beginning of Phase Five has accorded many a dreamer with visions of grandeur and ambition. One might be happy to know that Kevin Feige himself hypes up his latest Big Bad in such vocal excitement that it truly feels like a child’s first visit to Disneyland. Kang dominates the subgenre of evil villains to such an extent that his villainy needed to be dissected into multiple parts with each part aka variant indulging a different maniacal version of his.

The versions that are at play within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, are rather limited to the audience in their encyclopedic vastness. One particular theory did rise in spite of Marvel’s eccentric ability to keep plot details under wraps until the very last moment, and this new factoid comes from none other than Jonathan Majors’ very own trainer, Jamie Sawyer, who claimed about his client’s Ant-Man 3 persona:

“He is the warrior version of Kang, so there was a focus on what that warrior would look like who’s been around through the ages and has developed every type of combat skill. It was about making him look like an imposing figure.”

Kang the Conqueror [via Empire]

Whether Sawyer has been educated on the Marvel jargon or if he too is in on Feige’s elaborate ruse to misdirect the fans is yet to be deciphered. But if the rumors of Warrior Kang entering the fray indeed turns out to be true, Scott Lang’s sacrifice (by the looks of it) may not be the only impactful shockwave to hit the MCU in the near future.

How Does Warrior Kang’s Arrival Impact the MCU Narrative?

It has now been established that the death of He Who Remains was what one may refer to as “a necessary sacrifice” in order for Marvel to launch its entire Multiverse Saga. The arrival of Warrior Kang might just be the spark to the cause that lights up the whole universe in flames. In simpler terms, Kang’s variants are always at war – with the heroes and himself, all over the multiverse and in every reality. And as such, the plot asks for a well-deserved showdown between two of the most dichotomous versions of the futuristic villain: a ruthless Warrior Kang vs. the theatrically somber He Who Remains.

Kang variants fight in an all-out Multiversal war

Although there have been rumors of the return of He Who Remains, the reports are anything but set in stone. This has been made apparent when Feige especially mentions the presence of an alter ego that can prove to be a challenge to the Big Bad Kang. It further helps when Jonathan Majors himself adds,

“Kang adds tonal diversity, real conflict and real friction. You’re being introduced to a new vibration in the MCU. There’s conflict – not just mano-a-mano, not just hero and villain, but ‘your way of life’ and ‘my way of life’. I’m coming for it. We’re in battle here.”

As such, Warrior Kang going up against his benevolent alternate self will pit the mass tension at an epic high where the audience wanting and needing the latter to win will still haunt them with the moral dilemma: is any version of Kang really reliable enough in the end?

This tug and pull at one’s conscience will drive the accumulated conflict over the edge, spilling into the events of Secret Wars where we find Warrior Kang not only battling his multiversal selves but the unified heroes and anti-villains collected across all universes and all realities simultaneously.