So far, it’s looking like that mission was more than accomplished: Jonathan Majors, who looked to Heath Ledger’s Joker as inspiration and likens working across the MCU to joining a Shakespearean troupe, is taking this role very seriously. Majors has proven himself a thoughtful actor, who pours soul into every performance — something that the worst Marvel villains are sorely lacking. So of all the many concerns that folks have leading up to “Quantumania” (What happened to the days of small-scale “Ant-Man” movies? Exactly how much of this will take place in purple CGI land? Where the hell is Luis?!), we have it on good authority that the villain doesn’t need to be one of them.
The MCU tends to be a little hit-and-miss when it comes to great villains, and with Kang expected to play a major role in the next era of movies, there wasn’t much room for a miss. Thankfully, Kevin Feige’s enthusiasm about the character — and, most importantly, Jonathan Majors in the role — was shared by some of the very first people to see him in action. As Feige explained to EW:
“In the early days of ‘Quantumania’ [test audiences], Jonathan started to pop in a big way. He’s the highest-testing villain we’ve ever had in any of our friends and families [screenings]. That’s really saying something with a movie like this.”