Following the release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” we take a deep dive into the post credits scenes and how those affect the future of the MCU…
A new Marvel movie hit theaters this past weekend and that can only mean one thing — there are some post credits scenes that will undoubtedly play a part in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Needless to say, SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA.
So with “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” hitting theaters a few days ago, the film centers around Scott Lang and his family — including Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne — being dragged into the Quantum Realm where they meet a tyrannic ruler named Kang the Conquerer.
Kang had previously teamed up with Janet when they were both stuck in the Quantum Realm and she had helped repair his ship so they could hopefully both break free and return home. It wasn’t until Janet got a vision about Kang’s past, which included him time-traveling and destroying numerous worlds across the multiverse, that she was forced to turn on him.
It turns out Kang had actually been exiled to the Quantum Realm by his other variants but he was determined to escape so he could have his revenge — but without that option available to him thanks to Janet, he decided to just conquer the world where he was stuck living.
Now all these years later, Janet returns but this time she has backup with Scott, Hope, and even Cassie Lang teaming up to stop Kang from fixing his ship and escaping the Quantum Realm.
In the end, Ant-Man and the rest of his family defeat and destroy Kang’s empire before returning home to Earth and leaving the Quantum Realm behind them. After resuming his life in San Francisco, Scott couldn’t help but wonder if the warning about multiple Kangs existing across the multiverse might be a problem that could come back to haunt him in the future but he decides not to act on it.
Judging by the post credits scenes, that’s going to be a decision he’ll regret. So first things first, let’s talk about that initial post credits scene that starts a few moments after the movie ends.
A Council of Kangs
The first post credits scene introduces us to a trio of Kangs that are more or less ripped straight from the comic books. Immortus — a variant of Kang who actually travels into the far future and works directly with the Time-Keepers (a group previously introduced in the “Loki” series) to control and manipulate the timeline in similar fashion to He Who Remains, which was the first version of Kang we met in “Loki.” The second was Rama-Tut — a Kang variant who traveled back to ancient Egypt and became its ruler while using future technology to maintain his iron grip as king. The final variant was likely Scarlet Centurion — a version of Kang who took on a new identity after meeting Dr. Victor Von Doom, the legendary villain from the “Fantastic Four” series. In the comics, Kang’s original identity was Nathaniel Richards and many believe he is either a direct descendant of Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four or possibly Dr. Victor Von Doom.
These three Kangs remark that the exiled Kang the Conquerer that they banished to the Quantum Realm had been defeated and killed by two Avengers, which they believe puts them at great risk unlike any before.
“None of us killed him,” Immortus said. “They did. They’re beginning to touch the multiverse. If we let them, they will take everything we built. So let’s stop wasting time.”
With that, the three main Kang variants introduce a stadium filled with all the different Kang’s from across the multiverse, all gathered together for this major assault planned on The Avengers.
If you remember back to the season finale of “Loki,” after Loki and Sylvie met He Who Remains — he offered them the chance to take his place watching over the sacred timeline or if they chose vengeance and killed him, that they would be effectively splintering the timeline and allowing all of his variants to break loose.
“If you think I’m evil, well just wait till you meet my variants.”
Now we’re actually meeting those variants and they are just as bad as promised — and there’s hundreds of them all hell bent on conquering the multiverse. Now in the Council of Kangs from the comics, Immortus actually manipulated that meeting as a way to destroy all the other variants to ensure that Prime Kang would eventually become Immortus again.
Judging by this version, however, the Kangs are all working together towards a common goal, especially now that they’ve realized The Avengers serve as a major threat to their plans to conquer the multiverse.
It’s safe to say a lot of Kang variants will be popping up in future movies so stay tuned for that.
Victor Timely
The second and final post-credits scene introduces us to yet another Kang variant — this one named Victor Timely, who is giving a presentation about time and how it could potentially be manipulated. Out in the crowd we find Loki and his old Time Variance Authority pal Mobius watching the presentation.
Mobius doesn’t seem all that impressed and he’s wondering if perhaps Loki has oversold just how dangerous this man might be. Loki is quick to remind him that he’s met another variant of Kang and they should all be feared.
The comic book version of Victor Timely is yet another Kang variant — this one travels back to Wisconsin in 1901 and sets up shop in a new town appropriately called Timely where he becomes the first ever mayor. Victor uses his vast knowledge of future technology to make scientific advances far beyond anything that has ever been seen before. His plan is to develop and amass enough power over time that he could eventually defeat The Avengers.
It’s also worth noting that in the comics, Victor Timely is actually Prime Kang so it’s entirely possible that this is the first and most powerful of all the Kang variants that we will meet.
Of course, “Loki” season 2 is already on the way with current rumors swirling around the show returning to Disney+ this summer, which would explain the lead-in from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quatumania, especially now that the Kang variants are starting to spread like a virus.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has already said that Kang won’t appear in every film but he will be an omnipresent force threatening the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will be interesting to see where else he might pop up — the next opportunity will come in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which is due out on May 5.
