Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror Is Marvel's Highest-Rated Villain with Test Audiences
Marvel’s latest film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has been met with mixed reviews, but one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Jonathan Majors is awesome as Kang the Conqueror, and he’s a great and fascinating villain.
It turns out that Kang is actually Marvel’s highest-rated villain with test screening audiences! That bit of news comes from Marvel Studios’ head Kevin Feige, who shared in a recent interview with EW:
"For years, we’ve always had the inkling that Kang would be an amazing follow-up to Thanos. He’s got that equal stature in the comics, but he’s a completely different villain. Mainly, that’s because he’s multiple villains. He’s so unique from Thanos, which we really liked.
"In the early days of Quantumania [test screenings], Jonathan started to pop in a big way. He’s the highest-testing villain we’ve ever had in any of our friends and families [screenings]. That’s really saying something with a movie like this. Even early on without the effects, Jonathan is his own effect. He was working from the start."
Majors does give a phenomenal performance in the role of Kang. The guy is just an incredibly talented actor, and it’s no surprise that audiences and fans are going to love how he brings this sinister character to life. I had nothing but great things to say about him in my review of the film
Majors previously talked about Kang, how smart he is, and how it’s “Kang against the world.” Majors explained:
"I mean, he’s hyper-intelligent – it’s one of the superpowers. His brain function is just greater than even the smart guys. He’s on that level. And the gravitas is a necessity. It’s Kang against the world, isn’t it? At least that’s his point of view. There’s no frivolity. Kang himself is very economical. He understands energy, he understands time, he understands what is needed to survive. He doesn’t suffer fools. Which is interesting because not to say anything pejorative about Ant-Man, but Ant-Man is a jokester. He’s a funny guy. And now you’ve got Scott Lang going up against Kang the Conqueror, who does not joke. He does have a sense of humor. And you’ll discover that. But he does not joke."
Paul Rudd also teased Ant-Man facing off with the villain in the MCU:
"He’s a formidable foe – the understatement of the century. Scott’s never faced anybody like this. He’s Kang the Conqueror! Thanos is obviously the closest but, yeah, he doesn’t have any of the other [Avengers] gang with him. How do you go about stopping somebody like that? It’s not easy. Whether or not Scott is even successful people will see… but I think that hopefully the emotion, and wanting to do what he’s trying to do, makes sense to an audience. Hopefully they’ll be rooting for me."
It’s also not a surprise that we are going to be seeing a lot more of Kang in the MCU. After all, Phases 5 and 6 are known as The Kang Dynasty and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sets that all up in a big way!
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives on the big screen on February 17.