Ant-Man 3 just picked up a Thanos-sized foe for Phase 4

Are we headed back to the quantum realm?

Jonathan Majors (Lovecraft Country, The Last Black Man in San Francisco) has been tapped to play one of the Marvel Universe’s biggest villains against its smallest hero. Majors will play Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man 3, according to Deadline.

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Kang is legendary throughout the Marvel Universe for his timehopping ways — it would not be much of a stretch to call him The Master but for the Marvel Universe. And with Ant-Man facing a time-travel villain, it would not be much of a stretch to say that we’ll probably return to the Quantum Realm technology introduced in Ant-Man & the Wasp, which fueled the plot of Avengers: Endgame.

But there’s more for those who want to read between the lines and speculate about the farther future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

According to Deadline’s sources, “with so many new characters in the MCU, there could be a twist with how the character is featured in future films, but as of now he is likely to be one of the main villains in the next installment in the [Ant-Man] franchise.”

The thing about Kang is that he’s hopped through time so much and so liberally that younger and older versions of himself have even established themselves as basically their own Marvel characters, including the older villain Immortus and the young superhero (yes, superhero) Iron Lad (yes, Iron Lad). If there are plans to feature Kang other Marvel movies, writers and creators could go pretty much anywhere they wanted with the character, simply by explaining that this is Kang from a different phase of his very, very long life.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe needs villains, now that Thanos has been defeated. And who better to follow him than a villain who weaponizes the very thing the Avengers used to defeat the big purple raisin.