It's a new era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its devoted fans are ready to enjoy it. The franchise staged a comeback with 2024's Deadpool and Wolverine and Agatha All Along bringing it success across the big and the small screens, showing the world that it still had hits in it. Those devoted fans never doubted it, but it was still rewarding to see the success rolling in once again.
Marvel Studios had struggled with a number of issues in recent years due to overexposure of the franchise with the launch of the Multiverse Saga leading to some titles performing below expectations for the first time in MCU history, as well as a number of behind-the-scenes issues. It all forced the studio to think big for its upcoming Avengers movies, and that included a complete reinvention of the first film that saw Robert Downey Jr. announce that he would be rejoining the franchise, in the new role of villain Doctor Doom.
However, now it seems like Marvel may have shocked fans once again with a potentially unlikely ending to one of the franchise's most important, recent characters.
What If...? season 3 may have just confirmed Kang the Conqueror's off-screen death
Marvel appears to have confirmed the end for Kang the Conqueror (and his potential death, too). In the penultimate episode of animated series What If...?'s third and final season, Captain Carter made a triumphant return, along with The Exiles, in what appeared to be the villain's infamous Time Chair (a.k.a. Time Sphere).
That very device was used by Kang the Conqueror to traverse the multiverse (as seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), taking him to any alternate earth or dimension he wished to go to. It was also used for the same purpose by Carter and her fellow heroes (Storm, Byrdie The Duck, and Kahhori). The only question is: How did they get it?
With What If...? being a multiversal show about alternate earths within the MCU's multiverse, the obvious answer might usually be something like: Well this was clearly an alternate version of Kang's Time Chair, and even if it did imply the Exiles/Guardians defeated him, it's not necessarily the same Kang. But the issue here is that the Time Chair is used to travel across the multiverse by the primary version of Kang, so if it does imply the defeat of any version of the character, it's the main one.
Fans have begun to speculate that this will simply serve as Marvel's method of explaining away the sudden pivot from Kang the Conqueror to Doctor Doom when it comes to the franchise's main villain. The former was being set up to be the franchise's next big bad - it's next Thanos, if you will - serving as the primary villain of the Multiverse Saga, but after Marvel parted ways with actor Jonathan Majors, the studio eventually reworked its "endgame" to include the new antagonist instead. Another report also claimed that the studio wanted to move on from Kang as the response to him was a little more lukewarm than they hoped, and thus the decision was made to pivot to the more well-known Doctor Doom.
Majors had appeared as a variant of the character, He Who Remains, in the first season of Loki before bringing the primary version of Kang to the MCU in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. He then played another variant known as Victor Timely in Loki season 2, as the franchise was building towards the character's rise as the next villain in what was originally called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. But with the shift to Avengers: Doomsday instead, fans are wondering how the studio can simply write Kang out and introduce Doctor Doom in his place.
There were rumors of a recast in the mix, but that was before What If...? seemingly provided the creative team of the Multiverse Saga with an alternative. If Captain Carter and the Exiles defeated Kang quietly off-screen, it allows the franchise to simply move on from his reign and focus on Downey's Victor von Doom. Of course, a better explanation will be needed at some point, and the fact that we didn't get one in What If...? implies that there will be more story to tell about Kang's fate at some point. But still, this is a curious development which may have allowed Marvel to quietly skip over one of its biggest issues in recent years.
We'll have to wait and see if Kang does return at all or if the studio will simply move forward with bringing in Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom. But if Captain Carter and The Exiles did defeat the Conqueror ahead of their What If...? return, it goes a long way in highlighting what a force to be reckoned with that Captain Carter is - and it certainly goes a long way in arguing for an appearance from the character in live-action when Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters.