Kang the Conqueror will likely be played by “Lovecraft Country” star Jonathan Majors, sources told the Hollywood Reporter. Majors, 31, would appear in the Marvel Studios flick along with Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily. The movie is scheduled to hit theaters in 2022.

“A time-traveling despot from the far-future, Kang the Conqueror debuted as a villain in Marvel’s The Avengers No. 8 in 1964. He’s intricately connected to the larger mythology of Marvel’s superhero universe, with ties to villains from Doctor Doom to Rama-Tut and even Thanos, courtesy of a feud with Nebula in 1990s comic continuity, and has faced off with everyone from the Fantastic Four through Spider-Man at one time or another,” the Hollywood Reporter writes.

Marvel obsessives say the news signals a potential link to the Avengers, since the character has fought the young superheroes in the comic books.

The casting news caps off a banner few years for the actor, who first captivated film fest audiences as the star of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” in 2019. He went on to appear in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” then as Atticus “Tic” Freeman in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country.”