The Ant-Man movies haven’t been the box office hits that many of the other movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have, but Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania still has quite a weight on its shoulders. The small series that could launches the latest phase of the MCU and heralds the arrival of a new main villain for the entire franchise: Kang the Conqueror.
Warning: The following contains Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film yet and want to remain unaffected, stop reading now.
Because of this, Quantumania doesn’t quite take the standard Marvel approach with its mid-credits and post-credits scenes. Typically, one of these scenes (the credits) will be some kind of future tease, while the other is more of a fun gag. For example, in Ant-Man & the Wasp, the mid-credits scene showed Scott Lang being trapped in the Quantum Realm while his family was being snatched by Thanos, and the post-credits scene was a joking clip of a giant ant carrying playing drums.
But Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania is the first film of the MCU’s Phase 5, which means it builds up a lot of stuff and doesn’t have time to waste on post-credits frivolity. No – this film has two separate teasers for upcoming chapters in the MCU.
Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania mid-credits scene explained – who are all these other Kangs?
Unless you’re a comic book expert, the mid-credits scene in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania will likely raise more questions than it answers.
In this scene we see three new characters, all played by Jonathan Majors, who served as the film’s main villain. These other kangs are talking to each other about what just happened in the quantum realm and that the kang we spent the whole movie with is now dead. Those Kangs were mentioned earlier in the movie – they banished our Kang to the Quantum Realm because they didn’t like what he had planned for the multiverse.
These Kangs are just three of many. As one of them told us, every Kang in the multiverse was called to the gathering to discuss the state of affairs. This group is known as the Council of Kangs.
There’s some really big implications to this scene.
First, the primary Kang in this scene, who looks like an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, is perhaps better known as the Fantastic Four’s nemesis Rama-Tut. This persona was the very first version of Kang introduced in the comics as he enslaved the Fantastic Four in ancient Egypt. Between the brief cameo of John Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic and now this, the Fantastic Four’s full entry into the MCU feels like it could happen any day now. Yes, we’re still two years away from the actual Fantastic Four movie, but surely by then the group, or members of the group, will have to have roles elsewhere.
Next up: The way Kang works in the Marvel Comics is paradoxical, and we see that here. The Council of Kangs is in fact not a bunch of alternate versions of Kang, but rather his future and past self. Kang has lived longer than any other character we’ve met in the MCU, having lived thousands of lifetimes in thousands of different realities. But he is only an individual. Like I said, it’s paradoxical, so don’t sweat the logic behind it too much. The nature of Kang’s existence is beyond our ability to fully understand or describe.
What does this scene say about what’s to come? Nothing special, apart from getting us a step closer to the Fantastischen Vier. This teaser is similar to the mid-credits scene in The Avengers, which revealed Thanos as the mastermind behind Loki’s invasion of Earth – it simply shows that the big plays are at play.
But that’s not our only bonus kang at the end of Quantumania.
Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania post-credits scene explained – Loki meets a new Kang
It’s a bit frustrating that neither the TVA nor the events of Loki Season 1 were even alluded to during the course of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, but if you stick with the credits you’ll be rewarded with a short one Look at Loki Season 2.
The scene sees Jonathan Majors as Kang – a notable one from the comics, penned by Victor Timely – in the Wild West giving a sort of snake oil salesman presentation to a small assembled crowd. And in that crowd are Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Owen Wilson’s Mobius. Loki seems scared to death of Kang, while Mobius isn’t impressed…yet. It’s clear that Loki did tell Mobius something about what happened to He Who Remains – the alternate version of the man who would become Kang we met at the end of Season 1 – but only Loki and Sylvie really know what for a threat he is poses for the multiverse.
This appears to be a clip from Season 2 rather than a scene specifically filmed as a teaser. But we don’t have any real context for it, so it’s difficult to speculate on specifics. But obviously Loki and Kang aren’t done with each other yet. Considering that Loki is a villain-turned-hero, it should be noted that there are heroic past and future versions of Kang in the comics as well. And some of those, like the Young Avengers’ teenage Iron Lad, could certainly be in the game for years to come.
GameSpot has all the Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania coverage any Marvel Cinematic Universe fan could need. We’ve got a spoiler-free review, a breakdown of what this mid-credits scene means for the future of the Fantastic Four in the MCU, and an explainer that tells you everything you need to know about the paradoxical Kang the Conqueror, who You’ll be seeing a lot more of this in the years to come.