Strap in, all people: Kang is coming. Ever since Jonathan Majors appeared in Loki‘s finale, the MCU has heralded the arrival of Kang The Conqueror – a maniacal, multiversal villain whose each variant is extra nefarious than the final. One of the best of the bunch was Majors’ He Who Stays, as seen in Loki – and there, he warned that many troublemaking variations of himself from throughout completely different dimensions are about to wreak havoc on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. First up, he’s about to make himself identified in Peyton Reed’s threequel, Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania.

Whereas 2018’s Ant-Man And The Wasp was a palette cleanser, an opportunity for the viewers to attract breath after the shock cliffhanger of Avengers: Infinity Conflict, Quantumania is a distinct form of Ant-Man film – and the arrival correct of Kang is ready to have main reverberations that can ripple into 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. “I believe it has a profound impression on the MCU,” Reed tells Empire within the upcoming world-exclusive Indiana Jones 5 problem. “Jeff Loveness, who wrote this film, is writing The Kang Dynasty as effectively, so there’s been loads of dialogue in regards to the impression that this look of Kang The Conqueror makes. There are massive issues in retailer.”

For audiences, it’ll be an opportunity to see a distinct flavour of what Majors can deliver to Kang’s alternate selves. Don’t count on a retread of He Who Stays’ daffy, knockabout power. “Kang The Conqueror in our film is a really completely different character,” the director teases. “He’s somebody who has dominion over time, and he’s a warrior and a strategist.” Provided that Ant-Man’s earlier villains have been lower-level threats like Yellowjacket and Ghost (plus, lest we neglect, Walton Goggins’ Sonny Burch), this was a chance to have him face, as Reed calls it, “an all-timer antagonist” – our diminutive hero is going through a villain as enormous as they arrive. “That’s fascinating to me: to take the tiniest, and in some individuals’s minds weakest, Avenger, and put them up towards this absolute pressure of nature.” One thing tells us it received’t be a Quantumania of solace for poor Scott Lang.

Learn Empire’s full Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania story within the Indiana Jones 5 problem, on sale Thursday 24 November and out there to pre-order on-line right here. Quantumania hits UK cinemas on 17 February 2023.