Warning: This post contains spoilers for Loki episode 6, "For All Time. Always."
Director Kate Herron explains how Loki secretly integrated Jonathan Majors into the show before ever revealing his face: as the voice of the Time-Keepers. In an ode to The Wizard of Oz, the season finale of Marvel Studios’ latest Disney+ series unveiled the man behind the Time Variance Authority’s curtain, He Who Remains (Majors). While theatrical, He Who Remains isn’t a mere con man like Oscar Diggs but a variant (presumably Immortus from the comics) of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s anticipated villain, Kang the Conquerer.
Loki’s Oz-esque bait and switch came two episodes earlier; when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) discover that the all-powerful lizards, the Time-Keepers, are nothing but mindless androids. After Sylvie beheads one of the three androids, the remaining ones laugh maniacally before powering down. If you listen carefully you can hear someone say “see you soon” as they go silent—the same thing He Who Remains says to Sylvie after she stabs him, unleashing infinite devils and multiversal madness on the Sacred Timeline. Not only did He Who Remains pave the road for Loki and Sylvie to reach his Citadel but he had been watching them the entire time.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Kate Herron spoke about being a part of the conversation with Peyton Reed (the director of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in which Kang is/was confirmed to appear) to cast Majors as the character. It was always the plan to introduce Majors at the end of Loki’s first season. That said, Herron had the idea to have him voice the Time-Keepers before showing his face as He Who Remains. Read what she had to say below:
"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. I was like, 'Oh, let's get Jonathan to do it, because he's an amazing character actor,'" she said. "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."
The IMDb credits for Loki’s fourth episode list the on-set readers for the Time-Keepers but does not list Majors—a testament to Marvel’s affinity for secrecy. Before his introduction, many speculated Kang would appear in the series due to various foreshadowing Easter eggs but there was still plenty of doubt. When He Who Remains is revealed as the enigmatic, charismatic, and funny TVA dictator, it makes total sense that he was communicating through/controlling those laughing androids. It’s worth noting that Majors cited his clown training from the Yale School of drama to portray the eccentric and smiley variant.
Loki makes it clear that He Who Remains isn’t as evil as Kang the Conquerer. In episode 6, He Who Remains explains he’s the last remaining variant of a 31st-century scientist who discovered the multiverse, leading to a war with other versions of himself. He Who Remains weaponized Alioth and created the TVA to isolate his Sacred Timeline from the other Kangs. The episode’s final shot sees a mortified Loki staring at a statue of Kang the Conquerer, who has already conquered the TVA following the death of his predecessor. Unlike He Who Remains, Kang is an egomaniac who doesn’t feel the need to hide behind animatronic Time-Keepers. Majors’ performance voicing the Time-Keepers and in the finale has already exhibited his range—it’ll be interesting to see how he plays the MCU's many versions of Kang moving forward.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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