Kang Explains Why Iron Man Dies So Much In What If

Warning: This article contains spoilers for What If...? episode 6.

Iron Man repeatedly dies in Tony Stark (voiced by Mick Wingert) always seems to get the short end of the stick. Namely, whenever Stark shows up in an episode of What If...?, he dies. In episode 3, an evil version of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) kills him; in episode 5, Iron Man s the undead as a zombie; and in episode 6, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) takes him down. While many other characters in What If...?, such as T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), have gone on to live exciting new lives as different heroes, Iron Man always winds up dead.

Loki introduced Kang (Jonathan Majors) to the MCU. In the Loki finale, Lady Loki (Sophia Di Martino) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) reach the Citadel at the End of Time and discover a Kang the Conqueror variant named He Who Remains is behind the Time Variance Authority. The Kang variant recalls the origins of the TVA, revealing that several versions of Kang discovered universes stacked on top of each other, and they all started a Multiversal War. To bring order, He Who Remains created the TVA and the Sacred Timeline. According to the Kang variant, the TVA keeps the Multiverse in check, and killing him will unleash numerous evil Kangs onto the MCU. However, Lady Loki doesn't care and kills him anyway.

While it seems odd that Stark dies over and over again in What If...?, Jonathan Majors' He Who Remains may have already explained why. According to a theory (via Reddit), the Kang variant relied on Tony Stark inventing time travel to create the TVA. Without Stark's tech, he would've never been able to travel through time, establish the TVA, and put the Sacred Timeline in place. Sans the TVA, more evil versions of Kang could thrive in the MCU. With Stark dying so often in the timelines, there are fewer pure versions of Kang around with the technology to make the TVA. Thus, more evil versions of Kang take over the Multiverse.

Jonathan Majors Loki Kang the conqueror variants

He Who Remains seems to back up the theory in Loki. In the series, he promises that an infinite amount of evil Kang variants would enter the MCU if the Loki variants killed him. "If you think I'm evil, well, just wait till you meet my variants," Majors' character says in the Loki season 1 finale. If Stark is the key to time travel in the MCU, his death could have devastating consequences on the timeline. Without Stark, He Who Remains couldn't create the TVA, the time-hopping TemPads, or devices to monitor the Sacred Timeline, so evil Kang variants can attack the Multiverse unchecked. The last scene in Loki adds more evidence, showing a potentially evil version of Kang the Conqueror in charge of the TVA and allowing the timeline to branch.

Still, Kang is a genius on his own. He Who Remains explains in Loki that Kang variants were the ones to discover other universes, not Stark. Additionally, Kang has a complicated MCU timeline and was born hundreds of years after Stark, diminishing the chances that he's specifically reliant on Stark technology. Yes, Tony Stark's tech could help Kang hop through time and create the Sacred Timeline, but that doesn't need to be the case. There are endless possibilities in the Multiverse, and Stark is far from the only genius, playboy, philanthropist out there.

More: Kang Will Appear Next In Eternals (Not Ant-Man 3) - Theory Explained

Marvel's What If...? releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.