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When it was announced that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would not only star Kang the Conquerer but kick off Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you had to believe not only would it have end credit scenes, but that those scenes would be bangers. And the film does not disappoint.
Quantumania is now in theaters and, as you’ve probably heard, it’s got Marvel’s traditional two end credit scenes—one in the middle and one at the very end. But what sets Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania apart is that its end credit scenes are probably the most significant in a very, very long time. So let’s talk about them. Obviously, major spoilers to follow.
To fully appreciate the first end credits scene, you have to go back to the movie itself. In the film, Kang says multiple times that he’s been exiled to the Quantum Realm. It’s a place detached from all space and time, so because he can see and travel through all of time, it’s the only place that can hold him. That opens up a few questions. Who sent him there? Why? The “why” is answered in the film. Kang skipped to the end of time and saw how everything ends. He doesn’t go into specifics but he says it ends with “a lot of me.” This Kang, apparently, didn’t like that. He’s a singular force and wants to be the most powerful Kang so, with the knowledge of what the future holds, he began traveling the multiverse, destroying Empires, Avengers, and timelines via incursions. Exactly what he hoped to achieve except just causing chaos is unclear but we know what happened next. It pissed off the other Kangs who have a larger plan he was trying to mess up.
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That knowledge is crucial to the first end credits scene. That’s when we see three different Kang variants meeting up: Rama-Tut, Centurion, and Immortus—all references to alternate versions of Nathaniel Richards, the man who became Kang, in the comics. They’re meeting to discuss the fact Kang the Conquerer, who they banished to the Quantum Realm, is dead. This is a huge deal. Kangs don’t die easily, especially not ones these very powerful Kangs wanted gone. However, the bigger deal is the person who killed him. A human being. An Avenger. And with the knowledge that humanity and the Avengers are beginning to learn about and use to travel the multiverse these Kangs believe they control, they say they need to speed up their timeline. Again, we don’t know for what exactly but we know that the trio calls every Kang that exists across the multiverse for a meeting. These are the “a lot of me’s” that Kang the Conquerer referred to earlier, and from the comics, it’s called the Council of Kangs—beings who are coming to take over the rest of the universe to start, we think, a “Kang Dynasty.” It’s our first and best look yet at the threat the MCU is facing in the Multiverse Saga.
What’s so cool about this scene, besides seeing Jonathan Majors as so many different Kangs, is that it answers one of the film’s biggest questions (who banished Kang) and adds some additional context to Scott Lang’s confused mindset at the end of the movie. He’s not sure that beating Kang really solved all the problems and he’s right. Something bad is happening and here we get a taste of it. It’s a smart tease in addition to being a good punctuation to end the movie.
Scene two is more straightforward but also related to all of this. At an undisclosed time and place, a man named Victor Timely is performing in front of an audience. Timely is, appropriately, talking about time. He says it’s based on lies and believes he can shape it. In the audience watching this is none other than Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who is with Mobius (Owen Wilson). Loki tells Mobius that Timely is “him,” referencing a being he met as another Kang variant, He Who Remains. Mobius doesn’t think Timely is as scary as Loki has described but, in fact, Loki—and we—know he is.
This scene is from season two of Loki, though it’s unclear when in the season this is (probably the middle since Mobius and Loki seem to be buddy-buddy again, despite Mobius not knowing him at the end of last season). The bigger question though is that in the comics, Timely was a secret disguise of Kang Prime, the mayor of a self-established and self-named town in 1901 who used the persona to live on Earth and become a titan of industry. Is this Timely like that? A time traveler from across the galaxy? Or just another variant? Hopefully, we find out later this year on Loki.
Check back soon for more spoiler discussions of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s in theaters now.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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