New Theory Suggests Iron Man 3 Introduced Kang The Conquerer

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in need of new villains moving forward. As has been evidenced recently, the big screen world loves to pull from the Iron Man movies for this. For example, Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s Mysterio had strong ties to Iron Man 2. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ties to both the first Iron Man and Iron Man 3. Now, a new theory which has a surprising bit of credibility when read in its entirety, suggests Kang the Conqueror might be on the way in the form of the evolution of an Iron Man 3 character.

Iron Man 3 introduced Harley Keener. A fan on Reddit fleshed out the details in full but, in short, this character may have had bigger plans. As the story goes, Tony Stark met Harley Keener and developed a father-son like relationship with the character in Iron Man 3. Moving forward, he took on a stronger relationship with Peter Parker than Harley Keener, going as far as getting Peter into an Iron Spider suit with Avengers: Infinity War and providing him with a Stark-made Spider-Man suit in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

The theory suggests that Harley, the character portrayed by Ty Simpkins, could have actually been on his way to become Iron Lad, a character from the pages of Marvel Comics. Of course, in the books the character’s real identity is Nathaniel Richards. Of course, if this were going to be the case and the movies wanted to follow Iron Lad’s comic book story, he would go on to become Kang the Conqueror.

It’s both hard to believe and believable at the same time.

More evidence points to Kang the Conqueror’s signature tool: time travel. Iron Man himself is the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s time travel inventor — more reason for Harley to take interest in it.

Now, why would he go bad and become a villain? It’s unclear. Is he mad that the other heroes couldn’t protect Iron Man? Might he be doing something similar to Syndrome in The Incredibles where being neglected by his heroes leads to a villainous turn? Or, is Harley Keener’s time in the MCU already fulfilled, with Kang the Conqueror coming somewhere else down the line?

What villains do you want to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

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