Surprise return of Kang the Conqueror: erased from the MCU, he reappears in animation in X-Men ’97

While Marvel abandoned Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, after dismissing Jonathan Majors, the character made his return in the animated series currently broadcast on Disney Plus.

Kang the Conqueror may not have completely disappeared from the Marvel Universe.

While the studio buried Avengers: The Kang Dynasty after the Jonathan Majors affair, season 2 of X-Men ’97 brings back one of its most famous variants: Rama-Tut.

The first three episodes, released this week on Disney+, take viewers back to ancient Egypt to tell the origins of En Sabah Nur, the one who will become the famous Apocalypse. We discover Rama-Tut as a tyrannical ruler, whose cruelty towards his people fuels the young mutant’s thirst for revenge and contributes to his transformation into one of the greatest villains in the Marvel universe.

The series never mentions Kang’s name, but readers of the comics know that Rama-Tut is one of the very first identities of the famous time traveler, who appeared in the 1960s.

This return comes as Marvel Studios has completely revised its plans around the character. After Jonathan Majors’ conviction for assault and harassment in December 2023, the studio ended its collaboration with the actor, who played several versions of Kang, including Rama-Tut, Immortus and the Centurion in the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Direct consequence: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was abandoned in 2024 and replaced by Avengers: Doomsday, leaving Kang’s fate in live action completely up in the air.

While waiting to know if the character will one day return to the MCU, Marvel seems to have found another way to give him a second life… in animation.