What Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania End Credits Set Up

March 9, 2023March 9, 2023 Siya Patel Ant-Man, Kang, Marvel, MCU, MCU Phase 4, MCU Phase 5, MCU Phase 6, Movies

The charismatic and lovable Scott Lang is back! Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania has set up quite a few plot points for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the end-credits especially have given the audience a great amount of insight into what we can expect in future Marvel projects. Let’s take a look at what the post-credits instill for the future of Phase 5!

The Council of Kangs:

Fans of comic books will recognize this image from the opening post-credits scene. Rama-Tut, Immortus, and a variant who seems to be a play on the Scarlet Centurion have a short conversation before the scene quickly shifts to reveal an arena filled to the brim with Kangs from various timelines, with more appearing at an alarming rate.

This first post-credit scene serves two main purposes. “The first is to illustrate the scope of what Ant-Man’s Kang the Conqueror — and Loki’s He Who Remains before him — meant when he said he was standing between their timeline and his infinite variants who meant to destroy it” (IGN). The character of Kang from Ant-Man operates under a philosophy akin to that of Thanos, adamant that he is not out to conquer reality itself but only its many variations and the fragmented histories from which they originated. But his opponents make it very plain that they are simply interested in annihilation, regardless of how mistaken their motives may be.

The second reason is to give the audience a glimpse of the three variants who will probably spend the most amount of time throughout Phase 5, building up to Phase 6’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty in 2025. Now the big question is: Which variant will lead the charge against whatever version of The Avengers we’ll see in the future? Undoubtedly, throughout the coming years, each Kang variant will have a tremendous impact, but who will steer the variant ship forward—Rama-Tut or Immortus? Another possibility is that Centurion or a different Kang may take the initiative of the conflict with the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The second post-credits scene follows naturally after this.

Loki Season 2:

Victor Timely is the fourth version of Kang that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania introduces. On the surface, this version of Kang seems to be a mild-mannered 20th century scientist displaying his findings to a gathering of amazed bystanders. Yet, as we discovered from The Conqueror’s introduction to Janet Van Dyne in the Quantum Realm, most of these Kangs are not what they seem.

“Loki, however, seems more than adequately stressed out by the presence of the man on stage. (Then again, maybe he’s got some Mild-Mannered-Scientist-PTSD after his run-in with Dr. Banner’s big green friend) (IGN).” Mobius, who according to the season finale of the show, doesn’t recall his relationship with Loki before Sylvie killed He Who Remains, is spotted with Loki, but he isn’t convinced that Loki’s fear is justified. Since Timely has some significant connections to some upcoming MCU characters, it’s likely that he’ll be altering his perspective as Loki Season 2 goes on.

The Fantastic Four and the X-Men, two of the largest anticipated arrivals to the MCU, could both be significantly impacted by the introduction of Timely. Timely — known in the comics for creating “harmless” tech in an era before the Avengers or even Howard Stark began tinkering — is directly responsible for the technology that made the solar gem possible. The first Human Torch was made with the help of said gem (who actually had a cameo in Captain America: The First Avenger). We still don’t know what direction the MCU will go in when introducing Marvel’s First Family, despite the fact that recent renditions of the character have diverged from the Torch’s robotic origins.

Since Kang’s origins (Nathaniel Richards or Kang Prime), are deeply tied to Doctor Doom, I think we can definitely expect him to be heavily involved in the movie version of the Fantastic Four story.

I’m ecstatic for the upcoming MCU movies that will feature a combination of some of the characters we’ve seen so far! My personal favorites being Loki, Shang-Chi, and Ant-Man; the MCU family just keeps on growing!