From Hugh of @hughv302

On October 5th, Loki Season 2 returns with the titular god of mischief going up against the greatest threat he’s ever faced in the form of Kang and his numerous variants that are coming together to take control of the multiverse for themselves. One of these variants is the mysterious Victor Timely who first appeared in the post credit scene of Ant-Man and The Wasp Quantumania and is possibly set to be a major character in the new season. But who is Victor Timely? What makes him different from the variants we have seen so far? Find out now below!

Origin

As stated previously in the Origins for Kang, he has had multiple variants of himself across multiple timelines and universes. Victor Timely is one of those many variants whose path took a different turn compared to the others. At some point in his personal timeline, a humiliated divergent version of Kang decided to abandon the 21st Century and set his sights on conquering the 20th, traveling back in time to January 1, 1901 and founding the town of Timely, Wisconsin, growing a mustache and taking the new name of "Victor Timely", as the town's mayor. Building a corporate empire, Timely Industries, he builds a series of factories for common machinery ahead of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, while instilling in his company's workers unflinching loyalty and knowledge of robotics. Subsequently, Timely uses his town to establish the time-crossroads of Chronopolis intended to serve as city-state headquarters for all future versions of himself. Originally confined to the town itself, the fortress gradually grows out of sync with time and space into the outskirts of Limbo, becoming a crossroads between past, present, and future, where one can walk between all time periods without requiring the use of a time machine, accessible via a portal. When away in Chronopolis, Timely is replaced by robotic stand-ins remotely run by A.I. copies of himself, which would age and die over time, allowing him to fake his death and assume the mantle of his own "son", Victor Timely, Junior. In 1929, Timely employs Phineas Horton to develop the technology to allow him to eventually create the original Human Torch by 1939, allowing Timely a secret backdoor to take control of the android. By the 1980s of this timeline now presenting as his own grandson Victor Timely III, Timely Industries' technology stretches out to include the security measures behind the Baxter Building and Avengers Tower and the robotic limbs of every cyborg in the Marvel Universe in particular Misty Knight and Deathlok allowing him to control their actions and eventually supplant Kang Prime with his former name, becoming the Anachronauts, his soldiers in Chronopolis, granting Timely (now Kang Prime) control over the Sentinels and establishing the Kang Dynasty.

Powers & Weaknesses

Victor Timely has no superpowers, but he does possess a genius-level intellect and amassed an extensive knowledge of 20th Century history, allowing him to dominate the mechanical industry of the time, and build a series of robotic duplicates of himself to allow him to publicly present as aging, hiding his immortality from the public by posing as his own sons, and allow his future selves an advantage over their adversaries. 

What to expect?

Based on what has been shown so far from the Loki Season 2 marketing it seems that the Victor Timely variant of Kang is set to have a large part in the events that will unfold as the many Kang variants assemble together across the multiverse to potentially enact the multiversal war that He Who Remains spoke of at the end of the first season prior to his death. Victor’s exact motives this season are currently unknown but given that most of the Kang variants seek to conquer time and the multiverse it can be assumed Victor has the same goal as them. But is Victor Timely seeking to control time and the multiverse for himself like he does in comics or is he secretly working with the council of Kangs that was revealed at the end of Quantumania? There are definitely many questions we hope will be answered in this season when it arrives this October.

The Future of Kang Beyond Loki Season 2?

With the heavy involvement of Kang in this second season of Loki it is important to acknowledge the elephant in the room regarding the recent controversies surrounding the actor of Kang, Jonathan Majors. At the time of writing this there have been no firm charges made yet regarding the recent allegations against the actor but he has been confirmed to be dropped from several major upcoming productions he was set to star in. Marvel Studios has yet to comment on or announce anything about the actor’s future going forward in the MCU amid a current production shut down as a result of the ongoing WGA & SAG strikes but based on the severity of the allegations it is likely we will no longer see Jonathan Majors play the character again after Loki Season 2. However, given the character’s importance to the overarching narrative of the MCU’s multiverse saga so far it is highly doubtful that Marvel Studios will discontinue the character’s story and will instead opt for a recast for Kang as they have done for several major MCU characters in the past. So much has been set up in the previous installments to have all the current heroes fight against this major villain that it would be ridiculous to suddenly undo all of it as a result of the Majors controversy. Kang is absolutely going to have a future beyond Loki Season 2 but I doubt we will be seeing Jonathan Majors play the character in other installments going forward. 

Loki Season 2 begins streaming Thursday, October 5th, 2023.

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