With Avengers: Endgame, the culmination of 22 movies across the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe, fast approaching, we thought it was the perfect time to kick off our "Road to Endgame" features (in case you missed all of our Road to Infinity War content last year, head over here). With so little actually known about Endgame, though, there's plenty of room to speculate, provide theories as to what might happen, and who we might see make an appearance in the film. If certain rumours are true to there being a secondary villain in the film, then who will join Thanos in this superhero beatdown of the century? We know a couple of guys...

SPOILER ALERT: There will be spoilers for Captain Marvel and Avengers: Infinity War. If you haven't seen those films yet, proceed with caution.

Kang the Conqueror


Who is Kang?

Kang the Conqueror is widely considered to be one of Marvel's most feared adversaries. Born Nathaniel Richards, a descendant of Fantastic Four's Reed Richards, Kang's first foray into experimenting with villainy started all the way in the future, in the 31st Century. After discovering Victor von Doom's time travel technology, Kang takes it upon himself to get up to some time travelling, history-altering shenanigans. For one, he travels back to ancient Egypt and single-handedly becomes the ruling pharaoh, Rama-Tut. After facing defeat at the hands of the time-travelling Fantastic Four, Kang heads to the 20th Century where he meets Doctor Doom. After crafting his now iconic armour (that grants him enhanced abilities), Kang takes on the title of Scarlet Centurion. Using his smarts, he manages to pit the Avengers against their alternate-reality counterparts, but is swiftly defeated by the team and basically exiled from the timeline.

Kang, upset with his defeat again, travels back to the future (Great Scott!) to the 31st Century, but propels himself a thousand years ahead of his time, only to find a war-torn Earth on the brink of extinction. Here, he dons the mantle of Kang the Conqueror and devises a plan to time-hop again to find a more sustainable Earth in the past.

Kang also happens to be one of the smartest characters in Marvel, so his intelligence is put to some interesting uses that deviates from the path of "good" - for the most part.

How would he fit into Avengers: Endgame?


Kang's ability to time travel could pose a few interesting questions for the future of the Avengers - quite literally. Since Endgame is speculated to have some form of time travel (as shown by set photos of the cast revisiting the Battle of New York), it's safe to assume that the remaining Avengers will find a way to time-hop to different timelines in order to perhaps collect the Infinity Stones and reverse Thanos' snap.

Would it also be possible for Kang, now a master of time travel, to catch wind of the time-travelling heroes tampering with different timelines? This is also assuming that he has existed in the MCU all this time, and the event that triggers Kang's arrival will be the time-altering events that might transpire as a result of the Avengers undoing the Decimation (the Thanos snap).

This, of course, presents one massive hurdle that will need to be addressed at some point during the MCU: the Fantastic Four. Since Kang's bloodline is tied to Reed Richards (or so theorized), then Mr. Fantastic would have to exist in this universe at some point in order for Kang's ancestry and history to make some sense (as well as explaining his genius-level intellect). Since Disney now owns the rights to all Fox properties, including the Fantastic Four, it's possible that they'll tease Kang as the potential big bad for the next few phases of the MCU, with his role becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on. The MCU has been known to make changes to the comics, so maybe they will find a way around Kang without the need of the Fantastic Four, but all chips are on the table.

Galactus


Who is Galactus?

Galactus is the oldest known entity in the current Marvel universe. Before the Big Bang that created life as we know it, Galactus was a humanoid named Galan who becomes the sole survivor of a pre-existing universe destroyed by the cataclysmic multiversal renewal cycle. At the point of the new Big Bang, Galan is gifted with new, god-like power that would give birth to the cosmic entity now known as the World Eater, Galactus.

Due to his insatiable hunger - a necessary act in order to sustain himself - Galactus would begin devouring worlds in this current universe, the Seventh Cosmos. With the new embodiments of the Seventh Cosmos, Eternity and Infinity, being born, Galactus was seen as more than just a supervillain, but an act of nature pertinent to maintaining order in the universe - the trade of life and death that is significant to sustaining it. As such, Galactus is never inherently seen as a villain by traditional standards in the comics, but more of an enforcer for keeping universal balance.

Of course, when he sets his target on Earth - thanks to his herald, the Silver Surfer - Galactus obviously butts heads with the Fantastic Four, who will see no such destruction fall upon their planet. Teaming up with the Silver Surfer, who turns against his master, the Fantastic Four manage to defeat and stave off Galactus.

How would he fit into Avengers: Endgame?


Fitting the Lovecraftian Galactus into the current MCU would be no easy undertaking (or one that makes complete sense), but a few theories have sprung up online that actually might fit the Devourer of Worlds comfortably into the plot without compromising any of its impact.

The theory goes as follows: we do know that Thanos' home planet, Titan, was destroyed due to resources becoming more scarce, and over-population dooming its inhabitants. Thanos' plan to eradicate half the universe stems from his past actions of killing off half of his own home planet in order to maintain those scarce resources, and for society to flourish anew. However, what if there was another side to this story? What if Titan was the target of a cosmic being known for devouring planets with excessive life? Suddenly, Thanos' actions have more weight to them. He was simply attempting to stave off Galactus, and thus, his reasoning for wiping out half the universe is to keep Galactus at bay.

Of course, this is a major deviation from the comics where Thanos' actions were meant to impress Mistress Death, but the MCU is known for these deviations from the comic source material - and this one actually makes a lot of sense. With the Avengers unaware of the ramifications of undoing the snap (which they probably will in Endgame), they risk putting the universe in jeopardy once again by attracting Galactus, and thus it paves the way for Phase 4 and beyond of the MCU - with Galactus as the new overarching supervillain. Suddenly, Thanos doesn't seem like too bad of a guy.

Another small but interesting detail is the destruction of the Skrull home world, which we learned in Captain Marvel was the result of the Kree. However, in the comics, Galactus is solely responsible for the destruction of the Skrull planet. Perhaps they'll address this or figure out a way to tie Galactus into the MCU timeline.

Like Kang, though, with the Fox deal still fresh, it's highly unlikely that Marvel will be able to flesh out Galactus in Endgame. However, it's still possible to tease him as the next main villain too.

What are your thoughts on Kang the Conquerer and Galactus making an appearance in Endgame? Let us know in the comments below!

Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26, 2019.