Jonathan Majors first played Kang in Season 1 of Loki, where we learned that He Who Remains had won the Multiversal War and had since spent countless millennia ruling over the Sacred Timeline.
Later, we'd meet Kang the Conqueror, who, despite being relegated to an Ant-Man villain, was expected to return from the multiversal power core as The Beyonder. Marvel Studios also introduced Victor Timely and the Council of Kangs, the latter of which was led by Immortus, Scarlet Centurion, and Rama-Tut.
With the focus shifting to Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, we may never know what was planned for Kang. However, a resurfaced X post from former X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo has confirmed that Majors was set to lend his voice to Rama-Tut/Kang in Season 2 of the Marvel Animation series.
Fans have theorised that his return was likely in the works, as the X-Men: The Animated Series revival featured several visual cues that seemed to reference the MCU's Kang. Was this animated Rama-Tut meant to be the same as the one we saw in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's post-credits scene? That's another mystery.
It was in December 2023 that Majors was found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the third degree and a charge of harassment as a violation, prompting Marvel Studios to sever ties with him moments after the verdict came in.
That came after an altercation with his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, though Majors has long maintained his innocence. He's since completed a 52-week domestic violence intervention program and, following the low-key release of Magazine Dreams (which once looked like it might land him an Oscar), the actor is mounting a comeback with The Daily Wire's Run Hide Fight: Infidels.
Even before Majors' legal issues, the response to Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania may have been the beginning of the end for Kang. Fans didn't embrace the movie or the actor's cartoonish approach to the three Variants who would have been front and centre in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
X-Men '97 Season 2 continues with the heroic mutant team of X-Men, divided and thrown across different eras in time as they struggle to navigate their return home. Meanwhile, back in the 1990s, suspicious foes and new strains of mutant intolerance are on the rise in the wake of the X-Men’s absence.
The second season of the original animated series features 9 episodes, and the voice cast includes Ross Marquand as Professor X, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, Lenore Zann as Rogue, and George Buza as Beast.
X-Men '97 Season 2 is now streaming weekly on Disney+.
Kang was almost voiced by Jonathan Majors
by u/Nerfheard in Xmen97