Jonathan Majors Doesn't Think Kang Is A Bad Guy In Marvel's Ant-Man 3
They say the greatest villains are those who see themselves as heroes. It'd be easy to write a bad guy who twirls their mustaches and does evil things for the sake of being evil. But a story becomes far more nuanced when it takes the character's motivations beyond that. What reason would this antagonist have for doing what they're doing? And how could an audience sympathize with their point of view even if they don't agree with the character's methods?
Marvel's been on a bit of a hot streak as of late with having sympathetic villains who the audience comes to agree with, at least a little bit. Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) from "Black Panther" had a very good reason for feeling the way he did about the world, even if he took it a step too far. And an entire fanbase rallied around Thanos (Josh Brolin) for wanting to wipe out half of all life.
It seems as though Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) from "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" will carry on that trend. In anticipation of the film's release, Majors spoke about the lens he viewed Kang and how he has reasons for doing what he does in the movie.
Kang bring sympathy to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
At this point, we know a little bit about Kang from the trailers, but it's clear he needs Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) to steal something for him, and in return, he can offer Scott Lang something no one else can — time with his family. Other than that, he remains an enigma even though he'll obviously be set up to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe later on, playing a significant role in "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty." But "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" sets the stage for the character, and according to Jonathan Majors, he'll be sympathetic in the movie.
During the "Quantumania" premiere, Majors was interviewed by ExtraTV, and he was asked if he enjoyed playing the bad guy. Majors responded with how he doesn't necessarily see Kang as a villain per se, explaining, "I heard on a podcast a couple days ago, and I went, 'Oh, that's good,' that our greatest instinct is sympathy as human beings. And I think that's true about the villain. I mean, the greatest villains have a great deal of sympathy. They don't bend and break, they don't become a good guy because of it, but they still feel it. So with Kang, no, I don't see him as a bad guy. I see him as an antagonist, and he's antagonizing everything, but we need the antagonizers. We need the deviance; that's what shakes stuff up."
Majors makes an intriguing point. Viewers naturally want to find some sort of redemption in everyone, including villains. They're naturally primed to accept some kind of explanation for how someone can turn out so evil. And apparently, they'll get that with Kang in "Quantumania," where he'll have reasoning for behaving the way he does. We'll just have to see for ourselves where that sympathy comes from when "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" comes out in theaters on February 17.