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Marvel Studios had doubts about Kang and the Multiverse Saga even before Jonathan Majors' legal issues
Kevin Feige has revealed that he and Marvel Studios weren't sure that Kang had the juice to sustain the MCU's Multiverse Saga before Quantumania even came out
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With the smash success of Superman and the underwhelming performance of Thunderbolts* at the box office, Marvel Studios is in an awkward spot. Sure, last year the studio made waves at San Diego Comic-Con when they revealed that Doctor Doom would be played by none other than Robert Downey, Jr. in 2026's Avengers: Doomsday, but between the box office turnout for Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*, that initial hype for the future of the MCU hasn't yet amounted to tangible returns for the studio - yet.
Not to mention, the pivot to Doctor Doom came after Jonathan Majors, who played the original big bad of the Multiverse Saga - Kang the Conqueror - was arrested for domestic violence just weeks after he appeared as the character in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, setting up the next few years of the MCU. Variety reports that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige addressed the elephant in the MCU's Multiverse Saga with Kang and Doctor Doom in a recent Q&A session with journalists.
According to Feige, Marvel Studios had reservations about leaving the future of the franchise in Kang's hands before Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania even came out. “We had started to realize that Kang wasn’t big enough, wasn’t Thanos, and that there was only one character that could be that because he was that in the comics for decades and decades,” Feige explained. “We started talking about Doctor Doom even before we officially pivoted from Kang. In fact, I had started talking with Robert about this audacious idea before Ant-Man 3 even came out.”
It's worth noting that Kang first appeared in Marvel Comics in Fantastic Four #19, from 1963, while Doctor Doom debuted the year before, in 1962's Fantastic Four #5. Obviously, Doctor Doom has a significantly larger stature within the Marvel Universe, since the rivalry between him and the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards is delicious, but Kang was also involved in big Marvel events like the original Secret Wars from the mid-1980s. Thanos, meanwhile, first appeared in Iron Man #55 from 1973 before cementing himself as one of Marvel's most iconic villains in 1991's Infinity Gauntlet story. So do with that what you will.
To be perfectly honest with you, I'm just waiting for Marvel Studios to do a gritty and inspired take on Big Wheel, and I'm going to keep talking about it until it happens.
Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:
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