In Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania we get a close look at the MCU's next big bad,
Kang the Conqueror.
And to help us break down the design
behind this multiversal miscreant,
I'm here with the director of visual development
at Marvel Studios, Andy Park, and concept
artist Constantine Sekeris.
Hi, guys. - Hi.
Hi.
Let's dive in.
Kang is such an iconic character,
and fans have been eagerly awaiting his big screen debut.
So tell us where you started with developing the conqueror
variant of this character?
Whenever we're tackling any particular villain, when we're
trying to translate comic into the MCU,
we always do a deep dive into the comic books, of course,
starting off with Jack Kirby.
CONSTANTINE SEKERIS: Jack Kirby just had this design sense
of just making characters look iconic,
just very simple and bold.
ANDY PARK: So this is our chance to come up with a classic look
that we see from the comic.
The purples, the greens, the helmet, the blue visage.
One of the very first inspiration
images that was given to me was of Kang
just sitting on his throne.
He's called Kang the Conqueror for a reason.
There's a certain status that you see in him.
That's where we started.
The challenge in bringing these classic comic book
costumes and looks into the MCU is we're always
trying to bring a reality.
So with Kang, it was bringing in the high-tech, futuristic
elements into his costume.
A big part of it was his helmet.
This helmet is really unique from others we've seen.
Was there a certain functionality
you needed to hit with the design?
Whenever we design helmets, it's
always such an important element to the costume.
Because at the end of the day, that's
what we're looking at, right?
In the original Jack Kirby design,
he's got more of like a sort of like toaster
square helmet that started to become
a little bit not as functional.
We had played with adding a clear face shield that allowed
then the actor to not have something on his face
or cover up his face.
It was very important for Peyton and the leadership of Marvel
to not lose his performance.
And even the question of, will his face be blue,
or will it just be Jonathan Majors?
We explored both, everything from having blue lights emit
from the sides of the helmet in towards the face,
projecting and giving him a blue tinge,
to more the high-tech elements of maybe kind of an energy
shield that kind of conforms to the face
that gives him the blue look.
We explored a lot of different textures,
different hues of blues.
In the end, it was like, how much can we still see
Jonathan Majors' face without seeing the sort
of like blue face shield.
So in the end, it was just something very simple.
Simple, but so very effective.
Now what other details did you focus on
to help craft the narrative of Kang's backstory?
Yeah, the look that we were going for is more the conqueror
Kang.
So he really has, like, this regal kind of quality to him
with the cave, the robes that hearken back to conquerors
of the past in human history.
But then we also wanted to infuse suggestions of, this is
a Kang from the future that has access
and developed high weaponry, high sophisticated technology.
Even the way we designed the cape
is a little different than just a normal cape
as it's segmented.
So bringing the technology along with the kind of more grounded,
rogue type of feel.
He's got this motif on his face, these sort of like,
lines that is very iconic.
And so in the fabrics, you see that a lot
with some of these lines and textures that
give strength to the character.
Can you tell us more about the design decisions
behind the lines on his face?
In this respect, you have two sort
of like vertical line designs, meaning
he's got the scars on his face.
And then when you do see him with a sort of like blue face
guard, you've got tech lines.
ANDY PARK: A lot of different kind of patterning
was done by the different artists.
And then at the end of the day, once we got that approved,
the makeup department led by Alina Arroyo played
with the ideas of doing different scars
on Jonathan Majors' face.
And it also alludes to why he has
the lines in that blue energy kind of mask.
But there's a story that maybe--
maybe we'll find out, and maybe we won't.
We love a good cliffhanger.
Now your team has brought such an awesome look for Kang.
What are you most proud of when looking back at the process?
I'm very proud of how the design looks on paper,
and then also how it was translated.
So I'm going to have to also give kudos
to the costume department and props
for translating this character in the real world.
I'm most proud of my team of artists
and seeing that Kang was pretty darn comic accurate,
I feel like this is a Kang that I've been wanting to see,
the fans have been wanting to see.
We stayed as true as we could to the comic source.
Hopefully, we're not letting any fans down.
I think it looks amazing.
Every time I see it, it puts a smile on my face.
We're all smiling too.
Well, except for Kang.
He's not a smiler.
He's a conqueror.
Never mind.
Well, listen, Andy, Constantine, thank you
so much for chatting with us.
Thanks, Langston.
Thank you.
And of course, everyone, go experience
Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and the Wasp:
Quantumania in theaters now.