WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Loki Season 1 finale, "For All Time. Always." now streaming on Disney+.
While Jonathan Majors' surprise appearance as He Who Remains during Loki's Season 1 finale marked Kang's MCU debut -- or a version of Kang, at least -- the actor actually appeared two episodes prior: as the voices of the Time Keepers.
Loki director Kate Herron spoke with EW about the big reveal and how the plot of the show was always moving towards Majors' arrival as the mysterious overseer of time. "It was always our North star," Herron said. "What happened [between] when they met him and when the multiverse was born was still on the table, that's something obviously me, the writers, Michael [Waldron, the head writer], and the studio discussed and worked on... I think honestly, for me and the writing team, we were just like, 'Okay, we'll just keep assuming we're going to get to introduce him until we're not allowed to.'"
In the end, the show did get to use Kang and Majors, an outcome many had theorized would be part of the finale's reveal. Of course, no one knew for certain as Marvel Studios kept things tightly under wraps. "We got to do it and what an honor it was to bring him into the MCU. It was a big secret to sit on," Herron said.
The fact that things were kept quiet is even more surprising as Herron revealed that Majors voiced the three robotic Time Keepers seen at the end of episode 4.
"Something that was really fun for me was we hadn't, for example, cast the voice of the Time Keepers yet, because you know Wizard of Oz was an obvious reference of ours," Herron said. "I was like, 'Oh, let's get Jonathan to do it,' because he's an amazing character actor. We sent him the art of all the characters and it was really fun [because] he was sending us all of these different voices he could do for each character, which was great."
Season 1 of Loki is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+. Jonathan Majors will reprise his role -- or a variant of the character -- in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, out Feb. 17, 2023. But with a second season of Loki in the works, he could return before then.
Source: EW