The 2021 Loki series has introduced a popular character in the Marvel Comics but never appeared before on any Marvel movie, Kang the Conqueror. Finally, Kang is revealed to be the Time Keeper - the founder and ruler of the TVA Time Variance Authority that specializes in pruning time variants and their realities in order to maintain a single timeline. So why and how Kang acquired the title "the Conqueror of the Universes"?

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Kang's cinematic background we know so far comes only from what he told Loki and Sylvie in the final episode of Loki Season 1. While it's possible that Marvel will build Kang's character in cinema differently to that in comics, the title "Conqueror" is used in both areas.

KANG IN THE 31ST CENTURY

In the Marvel comics, Kang is originally Nathaniel Richards, a 31st-century scholar passionate with history, science (especially physics), the arts of manipulation (roughly as a psychologist), and most of all, the ability to "steal" other people's technology. Nathaniel accidentally discovered the time travel technology created by Victor von Doom and used it for his later endless time travelling.

KANG IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Bored with the peaceful and beautiful reality of the 31st Century, he decided to travel back in time to ancient Egypt on a Sphinx-shaped time-ship and became Pharaoh Rama-Tut. As a speculator for the future, Nathaniel was hatching a plan for En Sabah Nur to succeed him on the throne.

En Sabah Nur was destined to become the mutant Apocalypse (refer to the movie X-Men: Apocalypse 2016) – one of the most powerful characters on the planet and Nathaniel wanted to be the one in control of the most powerful one.

However, Nathaniel's plan (in the incarnation of Pharaoh Rama-Tut) was ruined before it could be materialized when he was defeated by the Fantastic Four when the team accidentally fell into the Ancient Egyptian timeline.

KANG IN EARTH IN THE 20TH CENTURY

The depressed and disappointed Nathaniel decided to travel back to his main 31st Century, however a time storm blew him into the 20th century on Earth. Here, Kang embodied Scarlet Centurion and plotted to wipe out the Avengers.

To do this, he traveled back in time to a point when the Avengers were just beginning their careers, trying to create a subversive event (like the nexus in Loki) that led to the creation of an alternate reality in which variants of Avengers existed. He controlled the variants' minds with his Ultra-Diode Ray.

Nathaniel then mobilized this variant team of Avengers to kill the mainstream Avengers, however the Avengers discovered the truth and managed to get Nathaniel out of the 20th century timeline.

KANG IN THE 40TH CENTURY

The failed and deeply-depressed Nathaniel wanted to return to the guise of Pharaoh Rama-Tut in ancient Egypt, but he was drawn to the 40th century. And here the time has come for him.

He discovered a war-torn human society in which people didn't understand the technology they were using (perhaps this is true, when everything is available, people just use them and gradually forget how they were made).

Here, Nathaniel with his centuries of scientific knowledge easily crafted the iconic purple armor, possessed the cutting-edge weapons and technology of the time, and it didn't take long for him to conquer and rule the Earth.

One earth seemed never enough for him, he soon moved on to conquering the entire galaxies and officially called himself Kang the Conqueror.

KANG AND HIS VARIANTS

Kang's continuous time travel created nexus events that overturned the main timeline, giving rise to many different timelines and many variants of Kang. What all these variants had in common is the ability to time travel. In that way you can imagine how many “nexus” events were being created exponentially!

Later, in Episode 6 of Loki, Kang told the two Lokis, “To some of us, new worlds meant only one thing, new lands to be conquered. The peace between realities erupted into all-out war, each variant fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others. This was almost the end, ladies and gentlemen, of everything and everyone."

If Kang's accounts were true, then the Kang in Loki may have not been actually Kang the Conqueror, but a Kang Variant instead. This Kang Variant with the TVA and Alioth had quelled the multiverse war, which meant eliminating, maybe pruning, the other Kangs (possibly even the mainstream Kang - Nathaniel) to become He Who Remains - the sole survivor among all Kangs.