Kang is coming.
The MCU’s next Thanos is poised for a key role in this February’s Ant Man and the
Wasp Quantumania- gahd, I hate that title.
Ant Man is right there in the branding!
It’s even centered in the middle of the lettering!
Gah!
I digress.
After Kang fights the combined might of Killmonger and Scott Lang in 2023, who will he take on
next?
Well, Kang star Jonathon Majors is jonesing for a fight against none other than the God
of Thunder.
In an interview with Nerdbunker, Majors bantered about a potential match with Thor.
"I think we have to start with [fighting] Thor.
Yeah, come on.
Bring it.
Come.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I’m not afraid of Chris Hemsworth."
If Kang is really as powerful as Marvel is hyping him up to be then it would make sense
that one of the strongest avengers goes up against him…
In fact, having Kang fight Thor would not only set the stage for the villain to be even
bigger than Thanos, but would fix the god of thunder’s maligned phase 4 journey and
even potentially bring his story to a satisfying conclusion.
Thor Must Die, and he must die at the hands of the mighty Kang the Conqueror!
Before Thor Love and Thunder, Hemsworth said that he was game for doing Thor as long as
he could.
Post Love and Thunder he certainly seems less enthused, in no doubt due to the poor critical
reception.
Now his comments seem much more final, indicating to Variety that he would like to “close
the book” on Thor and seemingly give him a final stand.
"I feel like we'd probably have to close the book if I ever did it again, you know what
I mean?...
I feel like it probably warrants that.
I feel like it'd probably be the finale, but that's not based on anything anyone's told
me or any sort of plans.
You have this birth of a hero, the journey of a hero, then the death of a hero, and I
don't know — am I at that stage?
Who knows?"
This is no surprise given the fact that he said he was bored by the character after Dark
World and Age of Ultron, feeling that Marvel needed to refresh things and mix it up to
keep him engaged.
Ragnarok and the Infinity War double bill made great strides in his story, but Love
and Thunder certainly left things in a similar creative deficit we’d experienced years
prior.
Love and Thunder might have been a misfire, but in terms of Thor’s story, it does tie
things off pretty well.
His love story with Jane Foster reaches its conclusion, Asgard has settled and prospered
in a new place with a new King, he’s largely given up the fight to focus on himself and
he even ends up a surrogate daddy.
I don’t really need a movie about him and the kid but I’m happy for them to ride off
into the sunset together.
So when we catch up with Thor next, unless a solid new conflict is introduced, it would
start to feel like overkill to keep using him.
I was originally on board for having Thor kick around well into the next phases; it
made sense for me to have the god of thunder long outlast both Tony and Steve because then
the audience gets a real time feeling of what it's like for Thor himself.
[Tennant: You wither and you die and I go on] But after Thor Love and Thunder’s tepid
storytelling, and the fact that phase 4 introduced a ridiculous number of new heroes that deserve
the spotlight, I think it might be time for the character to make his momentous exit.
By the time we come to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Thor will have been involved in four
solo movies and four Avengers team-up movies.
Odinson's not a character that has merely popped up in these movies, he's been central
to the plot every single time; the least relevant being arguably Age of Ultron, but he still
had a decent amount of screentime.
In both Infinity War and Endgame he had a massive arc that really served as the lynchpin
to that story.
It would be a bit redundant to give him another huge role in the next two Avengers movies,
but equally I think it would be a cop out to give him a minor role.
Remember how limp Bruce Banner was in Infinity War and Endgame?
Yeah we don’t want that for Thor.
Give him a small but pivotal inclusion, allowing for the new heroes like Captain America and
Shang-Chi to step up for the real battle.
Of course, aside from Hemsworth’s fluctuating enthusiasm for the character, understandably
rooted in fluctuating quality behind the camera, is the fact that he was recently made aware
of a potentially concerning health issue.
Being genetically predisposed to developing Alzheimers in later life, Hemsworth has taken
the decision to put his work on the back burner to focus on family.
With that in mind, who knows how many more roles the actor will want to pursue going
into the future.
He’s certainly left his mark already.
Whether he takes a short break or enjoys a longer absence, it means that a full solo
Thor quest or even a substantial role in a team up might be a bit of a stretch.
Why not let the actor come in for a few weeks to shoot an awesome climactic scene to his
time with the character?
The guy has already given us over a decade of Thor stories.
Thor says in Infinity War he’s killed thousands of warriors, and that Thanos is just another
in a long line of bastards - well, he went for the head - he finished Thanos - but eventually
someone is going to be in that line that stops the god of thunder once and for all.
He has to die in battle - what else could finish the god of thunder - he will go to
valhalla
So however the storyline to Kang Dynasty goes, and there’s a lot of pieces in play with
more to be added across the next few years, I want Thor’s part to be something like
this.
At the opening of the movie, Kang emerges to take on the Avengers - but before the team
can take him on, Thor takes a stand against him.
He’s wearing an awesome version of his classic mcu look, no garish gold frills, and he even
wears that sweet helmet.
Knowing of Kang, he’s come prepared with not only Stormbreaker but Miljonir too.
Kang notes that he’s killed Thor Odinson many times before; this time will be no different.
Even with two hammers, Thor is no match for Kang; not this time.
He cracks Stormbreaker across his knee, tearing the hammer in two and leaving the god of thunder
with only Miljnor to continue the battle.
Bloodied and bruised, Thor continues on throwing every bit of lightning he can against Kang.
But let’s pause it right there and talk about Loki.
Loki season 1 already established a dynamic between Kang and Loki that we will no doubt
see play out in his second season.
By the time we get to Kang Dynasty in 2025, Loki will have at least had a third, maybe
even a fourth season by then.
And I think the work started there will perfectly segway into the penultimate beat of this battle…
What if we watch Loki progress across multiple seasons of his show, becoming a key hero in
the battle against Kang, all the while desperate to reunite with his brother.
He’s keen to show him the person he has become and he wants his brother to be proud
of him.
Across Loki, the series, Loki does good and deserves to be rewarded for it.
Which is why he should totally be denied this resolution.
Loki should reach Kang too late.
He should get to the battle at the start of Kang Dynasty, seconds before the villain strikes
the final killing blow to Thor.
He arrives to be denied his brotherly reunion, and instead has to watch his brother’s final
moments the same way Thor had to watch him die.
Thor never even realizes his brother is there; he never finds out that he survived in this
variant form, and he never knows all the good he did across the universe.
Thor dies, deaf to Loki’s screams.
The other key heroes of the movie watch on and now know they are facing their toughest
foe ever.
Loki is hellbent on stopping the conqueror.
“You’re going to die for that.”
Kang’s first act in an Avengers movie is doing the thing that Thanos could never do;
destroy Thor.
The audience loses a beloved character, the stakes are set, and Loki is en route for a
glorious purpose.
Loki has become and will continue to be, a good person as he grows and changes leading
up to the conclusion of the multiverse saga.
Seeing Thor die without them reuniting is key to this; if Loki expects a reward for
his good deeds then he was never good at all.
But if he can still manage to do the right thing even after being denied one last day
with his brother then he’s doing the right thing without witness and without reward.
After Thor dies, the hammer calls to Loki.
The hammer in Loki’s hands would be a sweet pay off to Thor’s death and the fact that
historically the god of mischief hasn’t just been unworthy but comically bullied by
Miljolnir.
Only now has Loki come to be one with his brother’s fabled weapon; in this sense,
it is an extension of his deceased brother, a signifier of his entire family of which
he is now the last one left standing.
Holding the hammer, shedding cathartic tears, Loki realizes that his brother is there, that
he knows Loki lived on and that yes, he does know all the good he has done.
In an epic battle against Kang he overwhelms the conqueror by hurling Miljolnir at him
and simultaneously producing a maelstrom of projections; a devastating move combining
both of their skillsets.
With the hammer seemingly flying at Kang from a million different angles he is unable to
block the strikes from the real Mjolnir, and falls.
Loki defeats him, but is the battle over?
Well I’d say probably not, because we’d still have Secret Wars to follow it up but
that’s a story for another time.
I really hope the rumour that the second part will be led by the perspective of the multiverse
heroes turns out to be true; honestly give me that Tobey Maguire Hugh Jackman team up…
they could easily lead one of the subplots
in the movie.