Loki: Jonathan Majors Arrives in the Season 1 Finale as He Who Remains

The actor and creative team behind 'Loki' give Marvel Studios’ 'Assembled: The Making of Loki' a glimpse on how the role came about!

In the Season 1 finale of Marvel Studios’ Loki, “For All Time. Always.,” Loki and Sylvie make their way to the Citadel at the End of Time in hopes of discovering the real Time Keeper who created the Time Variance Authority and banished all Lokis to one role on the Sacred Timeline. Who they meet at the end of time is a man made of flesh and blood and who Miss Minutes calls “He Who Remains,” played by actor Jonathan Majors.

During The Walt Disney Company’s 2020 Investor Day presentation late last year, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed the third film in the Ant-Man saga, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, will star Majors as Kang the Conqueror.

What connects He Who Remains and Kang the Conqueror? In an interview with Marvel.com, series head writer Michael Waldron revealed the Loki series intended to have a huge impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward, setting up the multiverse and its main “time-traveling, multiversal adversary.” Waldron crafted the Multiversal War mythology, which He Who Remains explains to the confused Loki and Sylvie in his office at the Citadel at the End of Time, in the final act of the Loki story.

In Marvel Studios’ Assembled: The Making of Loki, series star Tom Hiddleston sets up the arduous task it took to reach the man behind the curtain, “After a very long journey, Sylvie and Loki are able to discover that the TVA had an architect. At the end of time, beyond the Void, beyond Alioth, is a doorway and through the doorway is a citadel. The Citadel is essentially uninhabited and abandoned, but there is one solitary light on in the window, and that light is illuminated by He Who Remains.”

The creative team behind Loki were thrilled to secure Majors to embody He Who Remains. Series co-executive producer Kevin Wright describes the character as “somebody who is looming large over the story, and is the driving force of the mystery of finding the man behind the curtain.”

“Once you see behind the curtain, everything has changed,” continues Wright. “For that role, it’s so exciting for an actor then like Jonathan to come in and live this character and get to do it. While they’re only here for maybe 30 minutes of the series, it feels like they are just in the DNA of the entire run of the show.”

In the special, Majors explains how he approached the character of He Who Remains as “the archetype of the wizard and what happens to him when he gets bored and he becomes the trickster.”

“When we meet He Who Remains, he’s on the borderline of those two things,” adds Majors. “We don’t really know where he’s at, and I think the ambiguity of that is one of the wicked things about it.”

Hiddleston reveals Majors came into the production of Loki in its final week, “creating something, I think, will be talked about for a long time.” He Who Remains’ presence and life’s work alludes to what’s at stake should Sylvie and Loki tamper with the Sacred Timeline, not just for the multiverse but the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Speaking on Majors’ performance, Wright states, “It’s absolutely thrilling; you could feel the energy on set. We were watching the flowering of the next phase of the Marvel Universe.”

In He Who Remains’ conversation with Loki and Sylvie, Loki asks the supreme Time Keeper what he’s so afraid of, to which He replies, “Me.” Hiddleston explains, “The variant of He Who Remains, the one he’s been talking about, the one he’s so afraid of, is Kang. Kang is bent on destruction, and I’m so curious to see what Jonathan does in the future.”

“With He Who Remains, the objective for me was to give me the largest canvas possible,” shares Majors. “And from that, as Kang begins to rear his head and do his deeds, in so many ways, he has no choice but to be in opposition, be different from He Who Remains. That was the thing that grabbed me and pulled me into the role, the fact that Kang lives in so many iterations, as He Who Remains says, ‘Reincarnation, baby.’”

As Sylvie plunges her sword into He Who Remains’ chest, will he make good on his threat? That remains to be seen. We’ll have to wait and see when Marvel Studios’ Loki returns for Season 2. You can see Jonathan Majors next in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, arriving in theaters on February 17, 2023.

Hiddleston concludes, “The potential of a multiverse is literally infinite. We can already look at our singular universe with awe as one decision begets another and another. We like to say that the possibilities are endless, but in a singular timeline, that is simply not the case. Each falling grain of sand in an hourglass changes how every other grain will fall. We’re both masters of our own destiny and victims of circumstance. There’s simply no knowing how things will turn out until they happen.”

All six episodes from the first season of Marvel Studios' Loki are now streaming exclusively on Disney+! Loki will return for Season 2. And don't miss Marvel Studios' Assembled: The Making of Loki!

In need of more post-finale coverage of Loki, we got you covered!

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This is just the beginning of the Phase 4 news. Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more details and sign up for Disney+ and start streaming now! And be sure to follow Disney+ on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more.