Loki Director Addresses Immortus Theories

Warning! Contains spoilers for the Loki season 1 finale.

Loki director Kate Herron has addressed the fan theory that He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors), the Kang the Conqueror variant who created the TVA, is actually the Marvel Comics character, Immortus. The Loki season 1 finale revealed that He Who Remains was the one responsible for keeping the Sacred Timeline stable and the multiverse at bay. However, after he was killed by Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), the multiverse reopened, creating the opportunity for many more Kang variants to wage war once again.

In the comics, He Who Remains and Kang the Conqueror are two wholly different characters with no direct connection other than their control over time. The MCU has changed that by combining them, making the new version of Kang very similar to Immortus – the character Kang eventually becomes in the comics. Unlike the warlord versions of Kang, Immortus is primarily interested in keeping the time stream stable and preventing the chaos caused by his past selves. That mission is very similar to that of He Who Remains in Loki, causing many fans to theorize that the two characters are actually one and the same.

Now, Loki’s director has weighed in on that debate. Speaking with Deadline, Herron shared that while the MCU version of He Who Remains shares many characteristics with Immortus, they aren’t necessarily the same character. She compared him to Sylvie, who also took cues from two different Marvel characters (Enchantress and Lady Loki) but is ultimately a new hybrid character for the MCU. Read Herron’s full quote below:

Kang is the variant, but he’s also not technically Immortus. It’s a bit like Sylvie, right? She’s a unique character in relation to our story. He Who Remains is in the comics, but the version in our show was very different. He’s closer to Immortus, but he’s a unique character for our story. But Kang is a variant of that character.

It’s possible that the actual Immortus could show up in the MCU later on, also played by Majors. Kang is being positioned as the franchise’s new overarching villain, like Thanos was for the first three phases, which could mean that a number of different Kang variants will feature in the story going forward. One of those, a more traditional version of Kang the Conqueror, is already confirmed as the villain of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

No other Kang variants have been confirmed by Marvel yet, but there will probably be several in Loki season 2. He Who Remains warned Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie that unleashing the multiverse would mean the return of powerful warring Kang variants, which will likely be a core part of the plot of season 2. With the Sacred Timeline gone for good, the MCU has a lot of narrative options going forward. Maybe that will mean the real Immortus showing up sometime in Loki season 2.