Ant-Man's Jonathan Majors on how he prepared for his role as Marvel's new villain

Virgin Radio

20 Feb 2023, 09:31

Credit: Rex

The supervillain appears in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in cinemas now, the third Ant-Man film in the MCU to date, and last week, director Peynton Reed told viriginradio.co.uk, exclusively, about his future plans for the franchise.

But we also got a chance to speak to Jonathan Majors, who plays Kang the Conqueror.

Kang has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful villains, and is most frequently depicted as an opponent of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four.

You might have seen a version of the character in the Marvel series, Loki, but he makes his feature film debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

We asked Jonathan - best known for starring in the HBO television series Lovecraft Country, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination - what it was like to prepare for the role.

"I read everything I could possibly find about this character about all his variants," he said. "Anything I could get my hands on. I read everything. I devoured it. That is the preparation, and you use your imagination with a character like this. He was built from a person's imagination. He was inspired by this king thing. So my job was to try to divine what that inspiration was, and then bring that to the screen."

Kang first appeared in Fantastic Four #19 (October 1963), by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Several alternate versions of Kang have appeared throughout Marvel Comics titles over the years, including his respective future and past heroic selves, Pharaoh Rama-Tut, Immortus, and Iron Lad.

We asked Jonathan what was it like working with people like Paul [Rudd] and Michael [Douglas]?

"It was hilarious and wild," he laughs. "It was so wild, you know, you're amongst legends with that. And that's fabulous. It's a huge honour to trade lines with them."

Oh yeah, you might enjoy reading more of our exclusive conversations with members of the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania cast, here and here.

Everyone is very complimentary about working with Jonathan too!