The upcoming Loki series on Disney+ might have offered fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a glimpse at the franchise's next major villain: Kang the Conqueror. While it was announced that Kang will appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the trailer for Loki showed a row of statues -- as well as faces carved into wooden walls -- that could represent the Time-Keepers, a group of powerful, and sometimes dangerous cosmic beings, who have both fought against and employed the next Big Bad of the MCU, Kang the Conquerer!
Loki centers around the God of Mischief's interactions with the Time Variation Authority -- or TVA. The TVA monitors the multiverse and time, ensuring that nothing ends up messing too severely with the flow of time. Given how the events of Avengers: Endgame played heavily with time travel -- resulting in Loki getting away with an Infinity Stone -- it seems logical that an entity like the TVA would be monitoring the situation, which could directly lead to Kang's involvement.
THE TIME-KEEPERS
Ostensibly, the figures in stone we see in the Loki trailer may in fact be the Time-Keepers: an organization created just after the beginning of the universe -- by a character tied to the TVA, who we also see quite prominently in the trailer -- to oversee the flow of space-time. The Keepers first appeared in Thor #243 by Len Wein and John Buscema, and they've been a sometimes benign, sometimes malicious thorn in the side of Marvel continuity since. Their originally iteration was actually flawed, which created the Time-Twisters, who caused all number of problems throughout the Marvel timeline, and could be an early key to mayhem on a scale of which Thanos could only dream!
The Time-Twisters were eventually "fixed," and turned into the Time-Keepers proper, and their remit as the overseers of the continuum put them often at odds not just with heroes, but their villains, such as Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, and more importantly for the next phase of the MCU, Kang the Conquerer. It's his organization that truly may endanger the MCU going forward, and his many aspects that threaten it in a much more foundational way than that Mad Titan did in Phase 3. He does this by not being singular in nature, but instead... being legion.
THE COUNCIL OF KANGS
The Council of Kangs materialized shortly after Secret Wars and the apparent death of Kang the Conqueror. Kang had traveled so often that far-future iterations of the character -- specifically, Rama-Tut (a benevolent older version of Kang who becomes an Egyptian Pharaoh) and Immortus (a farther-future version of Kang bent on domination) -- materialize and interact with the Avengers. When Kang's armor is overloaded fighting Thor, Kang and his older iterations seemingly died.
However, the Beyonder brings Kang back for Secret Wars, revealing that the villain had traveled so often through time that multiple iterations of himself existed simultaneously. Kang, stunned by this, finds the remains of Immortus, dons his armor, seeks out two other Kangs and forms a temporary alliance: the Council of Kangs. Eventually, the whole scheme is revealed to be a plot from Immortus, who survived his younger self dying due to how disconnected from time he had become. This results in the creation of a "Prime Kang," who ultimately, thanks again to time-travel, divides into more Kangs. One of the copies, now naming himself after Fred Flinstone, joins another group called the Crosstime Kang Corps. This organization is out searching for a Celestial Weapon of some variety, and on occasion comes into conflict with the true Prime Kang.
Some fans will recognize the Council of Kangs from their appearance in the cartoon series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. In the episode "New Avengers" the Council of Kangs confronts the Avengers. While the council successfully traps the Avengers in a vortex in time, the B-Team of heroes (consisting of Spider-Man, Wolverine, War Machine, Luke Cage, the Thing and Iron Fist) ends up fighting Kang and rescuing the core Avengers team.
KANG IN LOKI
While the TVA is confirmed to appear in Loki, it remains to be seen if the organization will have conflicts with the time-traveling adversary Kang the Conqueror like in the comics. The TVA exists to maintain and control the multiverse, trying to maintain order in a chaotic reality where countless realities can cause trouble, meaning the organization would be the first line of defense against someone like Kang.
However, with three statues that resemble members of the Time-Keepers in the TVA headquarters, there's obviously more to the story. If the Time-Keepers exist in the MCU, and Kang is on his way, as we know he is, then so too could a group of Kangs follow. The Time-Keepers did employ Immortus, after all, who did have turns of heroism. It's possible that there are good versions of the villain, then, trying to stop rogue ones, and both teaming with and fighting against the TVA, the Keepers and our heroes. On the other hand, it's also possible that the Council of Kangs somehow created the TVA to control and conquer the multiverse, as the Time-Keepers themselves -- there may be little precedent for this in Marvel history, but stranger things have happened in the twist of the MCU. Kang has existed to manipulate and control the reality around him, leaving the door open for the founder of the TVA to be Kang himself or Immortus.
If that is the case, it seems as if Loki will lay the groundwork for the MCU's next adversary while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will find the titular heroes opposing one or a few versions of Kang. With the God of Mischief potentially falling in line under the commands of the TVA, Loki might once again find himself as a pawn in a much larger scheme.