'Loki' Finale: Everything We Know About He Who Remains

This article contains spoilers for Loki season 1 episode 6 "For All Time. Always."

Loki's villain was revealed in the final episode of the series on Disney+, but his true name remains a mystery.

There's a prevailing theory among Marvel fans as to who the next big threat will be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe now that Thanos has been vanquished. Loki Episode 6, "For All Time. Always." might just introduce that character, although he's only referred to as He Who Remains.

Tom Hiddleston (Loki) and Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie) came face to face with the real creator of the Time Variance Authority (TVA) in the finale, and the cliff-hanger ending suggests we're far from seeing the last of him.

Will He Who Remains become Kang the Conqueror in the MCU?

He Who Remains, played with wonderful eccentricity by Jonathan Majors, gives Loki and Sylvie a thorough explanation as to his role throughout time and in the creation of the TVA during Episode 6 of Loki.

Fans have theorized for a while that the main villain of Loki and of the MCU going forward would be Kang the Conqueror. While the character is only ever referred to as He Who Remains in the episode, his back story is very similar to Kang's origins in the Marvel Comics.

He Who Remains tells his guests that he's been known by many names throughout time including "a ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains, a jerk."

The mention of conqueror there is a strong hint that he could be Kang the Conqueror.

He Who Remains reveals that eons ago, before the TVA, a variant of himself lived on Earth in the 31st century and that he was a scientist.

This is identical to Kang in the comics, who originally was a time-traveling scientist from the 31st century called Nathaniel Richards. Richards eventually travels back to ancient Egypt and becomes the Pharaoh Rama-tut. He then tries to return to the 31st century but overshoots it by a thousand years. He takes over the future Earth, becoming Kang the Conqueror for the first time, before traveling back to take over Earth in the past.

In the comics, Nathaniel Richards is a descendant of Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. This link could be a possible gateway to introduce this franchise into the MCU.

Within the Disney+ series Loki, He Who Remains is killed by Sylvie but tells her he'll see her soon. When Loki travels back to the TVA he discovers that the timeline has changed already and He Who Remains already has statues built in his honor.

Who is He Who Remains in the Marvel Comics?

He Who Remains appears to be a different character altogether in the comics and the Marvel Studios producers may have merged him with Kang the Conqueror.

Within Marvel folklore He Who Remains, who first appears in Thor #245 in 1976, is the founder and final director of the Time Variance Authority, and the true creator of the Time-Keepers. This aspect of the character is similar as He Who Remains literally created the androids that are the Time-Keepers in Loki.

He is drawn as a withered old man with yellow skin and no hair — incredibly different to Majors' representation of the character in Loki.

Jonathan Majors in the MCU

As the ending of Loki suggests, this isn't the last we'll see of Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains, and it's not the last of him we'll see in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In September 2020, Deadline reported that Majors had been cast as the super-villain Kang the Conqueror in the upcoming Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The Ant-Man sequel is due to start filming later this year with a release date scheduled for 2023. It is scheduled to be part of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Before joining the MCU, Majors was known for his roles in Lovecraft Country, The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Da 5 Bloods which he co-starred in with Chadwick Boseman.