Jonathan Majors on The One Who Remains and Kang the Conqueror
After having seen at the end of Loki one of the different versions of Nathaniel Richards, or the One who Remains, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are now anxiously waiting to find out how Jonathan Majors will give life to the most fearsome incarnation of the character, Kang the Conqueror. Two different personalities of the same character, a challenge that requires its interpreter to grasp different nuances of Nathaniel Richards, so much so that in a recent interview Jonathan Majors clarified how Kang and the One Who Remains are profoundly different.
For Jonathan Majors, The Remainer and Kang the Conqueror are two different characters in the MCU
The Multiverse and the concept of variants has already shown in Loki how the narrative possibility of presenting different versions of characters from the Marvel Cinematic Universe lends itself to offer screenwriters tools that are both fascinating and dangerous. The temptation to play with the multiverse to create moments particularly awaited by fans, as happened with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , must be carefully balanced by the need not to see infinite dimensions as a deus ex machina to offer imaginative explanations for unfortunate passages in terms of writing. If this danger arises for the various characters involved, when we talk about Nathaniel Richards and his peculiar existence throughout the history of humanity, this discourse becomes more complicated, as Jonathan Majors lived on his own skin.Not a series of alternate versions of himself, but a range of characters whose exploits have become an integral part of his existence, as was also hinted at in the final speech of the One who Remains in Loki. Precisely in the distinction between this identity of Nathaniel Richards, intent on preserving the Sacred Timeline, and Kang the Conqueror, who we will see in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a careful characterization work had to be done on the two characters. For Jonathan Majors it was important that Kang the Conqueror and the One Who Remains were different, in intent and in the characterization of their personalities, as he revealed in an interview with Total Films :
I'm really radical in expressing myself on this matter , because I say that the Remainer is the Remainer, I don't even call him Kang. He may or may not be a variant of Kang, in my mind I leave open the possibility that Kang the Conqueror is a variant of the One Who Remains. For me it must be a clear discourse, but it is also clear that there are no similarities between the two roles. I played Kang later on, and I didn't even look to Remainder as a role model for Kang. And I did it on purpose
This stance by Majors bodes well for the debut of the new villain of the Multiverse Saga, but it is also a further key to understanding what we can expect from the future of the franchise, especially in relation to Kang's story line. By his very nature, Nathaniel Richards has presented himself under several identities in the comic book Marvel Universe, and his presence now in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is poised to be one of the defining highlights of the franchise. Thinking back to how one of the future titles of the Multiverse Saga is Kang Dynasty, a film that will involve the Avengers, one wonders which other versions of the character Majors will have to interpret and how these different personalities will involve the actor.
