As the third movie of the usually low-stakes, mostly grounded Ant-Man franchise, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” had to surmount significant expectations as it initiated phase five of the narrative progression of the MCU. Aside from being a continuation of our favorite wisecracking, flawed everyman hero Scott Lang’s journey after the Blip (reversing Thanos’ snap) as he copes with balancing his role as a father and a hero, the movie also sets up the big bad of the ongoing story arc Multiverse Saga—Kang, the Conqueror. With the prospect of a considerable step up, the question remains: how did the movie fare? In short, it can be said it somewhat succeeded in finding a worthy successor for the mad Titan, but also, the sudden pressure of heightened stakes made the movie crumble under the overarching MCU mechanism. Something that has become pretty usual for MCU flicks nowadays is that the major talking points and future teases are shelved for the post-credits and end-credits sequences, and “Quantumania” makes the most of it’s potential in those. The post-credits sequence teases an ominous future waiting for the young and veteran champions of the multiverse, and in order to discuss that, we need to take a good look at the central narrative of the movie.
Spoilers Ahead
A Prologue
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” begins with a flashback sequence during the period when Janet Van Dyne was trapped inside the quantum realm for three decades. In a sequence that might almost remind comic enthusiast viewers of infant Kal-EL’s spaceship falling from the sky to Earth, Janet sees a vehicle entering the atmosphere of the quantum realm and crashing nearby. Unlike the aforementioned symbol of Hope, what emerges from the vessel is the tyrannical time-traveling despot, Kang the Conqueror.
Ant-Family
In the present day, Scott Lang is enjoying his change of fortune after being hailed as a hero after participating in the Battle of Earth during “Avengers: Endgame.” Hank Pym and his wife Janet Van Dyne have found bliss after finally being reunited after all the quantum/infinity snap shenanigans. Their daughter, Scott’s girlfriend, Hope van Dyne, has taken over her father’s company and is making progressive efforts for humanistic causes. Hope tries her best to make Janet, her mother, share about her past life in the quantum realm, but Janet dodges the questions most of the time. Scott’s beloved daughter Cassie has found a knack for helping the downtrodden and is trying to make a difference by standing up to the lackadaisical authorities, but often ends up behind bars—like father, like daughter. Scott regrets not being with her daughter during her formative years, as he was stuck for five years in the quantum realm during the events of “Endgame” and wants to have her live a normal life unencumbered by superhero duties. Cassie, in her usual teenage rebellious/idealistic angst, gets into a disagreement with his concerned father.
Inside The Quantum Realm
With the help of Hank and Hope, Cassie has managed to invent a communication device that can transmit and receive signals from the quantum realm. Cassie demonstrates the functionality of the device and wonders if she could have rescued Scott when he was stuck inside the quantum realm if she had created it earlier. Upon learning that the device can transfer signals in the quantum realm, Janet suddenly starts panicking and shuts it off. Unfortunately, the damage has been done as a vacuum-creating orb sucks the entire group into the quantum realm. The group gets separated as the Pym-Van Dyne family ends up in a different location from the father-daughter duo Cassie and Scott. Except for Janet, the rest of the group is surprised to see the sprawling, habitable universe inside the quantum realm, consisting of various species of creatures, a civilized society, and even human beings. Thanks to her prolonged experience in the realm, Janet guides her family through it and brings them to her former partner, Krylar—a Lando Calrissian-type character played by Bill Murray—for help. Honoring the comparison we made, Krylar ends up double-crossing them and selling them out to Kang. The Van Dyne family barely escapes, and Janet decides to break her silence over the entire situation.
Kang The Conqueror
Janet recounts that during her initial years in the quantum realm, Kang arrived there and introduced himself as a scientist who had lost his way and become stranded inside the realm. Kang’s ship, one that helps him to travel through the multiverse, appears to be unable to function with its power source depleted. Kang had promised Janet that he would take her back to the surface world and her family if she helped him make the ship operational. Janet helped him replenish the power core, and they succeeded in the end. Kang’s ship was neurokinetic, which also activated his protective combat armor. As Janet touches Kang’s ship, she gets a brief glimpse of the horrifying past where Kang, as a conqueror, was involved in a multiversal war and had destroyed numerous timelines, causing innumerable deaths. Later, during his interaction with Scott Lang, he also admits to having killed numerous Avengers and having been adept at doing so for so long that the memories of them have become blurred. Janet also learns that Kang didn’t arrive at the quantum realm during exploration; instead, he was banished to the realm, which rests outside time and space, with the power core of his ship emptied. Even though Janet was desperate to meet with her family, she made a judgment call not to let Kang outside the realm and used the rest of her Pym particles to enlarge the core and turn it useless. In the following years, Kang created an empire for himself inside the realm and ruled over his kingdom with an iron fist. Janet became a freedom fighter and joined the rebellion against Kang.
Probability Field
Scott and Cassie get captured by M.O.D.O.K., who turns out to be a deformed version of Darren Cross. Cross imploded inside his Yellowjacket suit and went subatomic during the events of the first Ant-Man movie, and inside the realm, he was modified into an advanced killing machine by Kang. Kang threatens to end Cassie’s life unless Scott complies with his demand of retrieving the power source core of his multiverse ship. Scott enters the power source, which turns out to be a probability field, which creates near-infinite amounts of Scott’s variants. Initially confused and trampled under the pile of his own variants, Scott soon regains his resolve after all of the variants get motivated by their connection with Cassie. In the meantime, the Van Dyne family reaches the power core almost at the same time, and Hope helps Scott retrieve the power core. Kang takes the core, defeats both Ant-Man and the Wasp, and abducts Janet.
Revolution And Retribution
An imprisoned Cassie escapes and sets other captive native rebels free. Sabotaging Kang’s projection mechanism, she motivates the quantum realm denizens to take the fight against Kang’s tyranny. Hank arrives with his technologically advanced ants, which evolved for thousands of years during their entry into the realm. Scott grows to his largest possible stature using Pym tech, and together with rebels and tech ants, he overpowers Kang’s forces. Kang enters the battle and wreaks havoc upon the rebels, but his dominance is short-lived as the tech-ants of Hank turn the tide in the rebels’ favor. Initially fighting for Kang, M.O.D.O.K. undergoes a change of heart and fights alongside the Ant family and rebels. He sacrifices his life while breaking Kang’s protective barrier. The rest of the family returns to the outside world, and Hope and Scott defeat Kang and destroy the power core. Kang is seen being sucked inside the core of the power source, presumably dying. Thanks to Cassie’s quantum communication device, Scott and Hope are able to return to their world. Scott and his Ant family live a happy life thereafter, although an ominous thought lingers in his mind.
‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Ending Explained – What Is The Council Of Kangs? Who Is Victor Timely?
In the final moments of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” Scott, now back in the outside world, ponders his actions, which led to Kang’s presumed demise. He remembers Kang saying that unless he escapes the quantum realm, other variants of him can cause the end of the multiverse. Kang remarked that he was the only chance they had against them. Scott brushes off his apprehensions, but the post-credits sequence gives us a glimpse of the consequences Kang had warned of and sets up the stakes for the biggest threat yet that the combined might of MCU heroes has to face. We see primarily three versions of Kang scheming about the way they can foil the plans of the people responsible for Kang the Conqueror’s defeat. They see the people who can potentially harm the multiverse as a significant threat.
A while later, we get a view of the colosseum filled with thousands of Kangs, as Kang variants from every universe have been summoned to constitute the Council of Kangs. As their accurate similarity in appearance suggests, one of the younger variants of Kang with an ancient Egyptian pharaoh headdress is supposed to be Rama Tut, the first persona that Kang adopted in comics. The one with metallic armor is supposed to be Scarlet Centurion, the persona that came into existence after Rama-Tut was defeated by the Fantastic Four in comics, and the eldest one with a mage-like getup is Immortus, the final incarnation of Kang in comics, and the most cunning one as it manipulated the other variants through the years. It is apparent that the three chief variants were responsible for Kang the Conqueror’s exile and wanted to kill him themselves. The Council of Kangs presents a terrifying prospect for the Earth’s mightiest heroes, as the numerous variants increase the threat exponentially. Also, it is not clear whether Kang the Conqueror survived or not, and there is a real possibility of him entering the probability field and surviving. The post-credits properly tease what to expect from the upcoming “Avengers: Kang Dynasty.”
The end credit scene shows Loki and Mobius present at what seems to be an early twentieth-century town exhibition, and through their eyes, we are introduced to another of the Kang variants, Victor Timely. Loki is terrified of his presence, while Mobius scoffs at his apprehension. Loki’s fear is justified, as we already had an idea after seeing the movie about what Kang can do. In comics, Timely Comics brought together currently known Marvel characters for the first time, and this version of Kang’s variant was titled as such to honor that. In Loki: Season One, the appearance of Kang was teased as one of the variants of Nathaniel Richards, aka He Who Remains, and it was prophesied that his death would lead to the uprising of other Kangs—something which came true in the movie. The “Quantumania” aptly teases the upcoming events of “Loki” season two. In comics, Kang manipulated a town full of people as his Victor Timely persona. Therefore, it remains to be seen what role this variant plays. It seems the time-related misadventures have brought Loki and Mobius to confront Victor in season two, who might be the prime variant, i.e., the original version of the character.
