Image via Marvel
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third Ant-Man movie, the 31st movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first film of Phase 5. It introduces Kang the Conqueror, a warlord with designs on interdimensional destruction. It sets the stage for a multi-film plot arc, which will culminate with two new Avengers films. So why does this film feel so inessential and lightweight, even as universe-sized threats rear their ugly heads?
Part of the problem is the Ant-Man character itself, who is better suited to quippy comic relief than high-stakes drama. Another part of the problem is the prior Phase 4 slate of films, which varied in quality and cohesiveness. Then again, Quantumania just made $225 million globally in its opening weekend, so none of this may matter, at least for the immediate future. Clearly, the Marvel brand is strong enough to withstand a rough patch.
Kang is a wonderful character played by a fantastic actor, Jonathan Majors. The actor is set to appear in multiple MCU projects moving forward—the next Avengers film is subtitled The Kang Dynasty—so let’s hope he gets a better script and story befitting his importance, and let’s hope the Phase 5 films do a better job of framing him as a Thanos-level threat.
Here are 20 Easter eggs and references you might have missed in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, plus a breakdown of those end credits scenes, which foreshadow the looming multiverse war to come.
Bestselling Book
We learned in the TV series Ms. Marvel that Scott Lang had a podcast, where he retold his Avengers stories for an eager, young audience. He’s apparently expanded his reach with an autobiography titled Look Out for the Little Guy! A real-life version of the book is currently available for preorder on Amazon.
Baskin Robbins Employee
Scott Lang’s boss at Baskin-Robbins (Gregg Turkington) makes a cameo appearance in this film, where he names Scott “Employee of the Century.”
"Thank you, Spider-Man!"
Despite his fame, Scott isn’t above being mistaken for someone else. The coffee shop owner mistakes him for Spider-Man, which is an inversion of when Peter Parker gets mistaken for other aliases (see: Night Monkey).
We hear again about the post-Blip homelessness problem; people who disappeared for five years returned to find their homes occupied. We first heard about this problem in Spider-Man: Far From Home, when Spider-Man attended a benefit to aid the unhoused affected by The Blip.
We now see that the problem has persisted since then. Like her father, Cassie Lang has become a socially conscious criminal, shrinking a police car down to miniature size after she saw cops trashing an encampment for the unhoused.
Portable Home
We see the Pym house is currently situated on a quiet San Francisco street, but we’ve seen it in other locations before. That’s because Hank Pym can shrink it down to miniature size and transport it wherever he wants. At the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, we see the house by the beach, where Hank stages a getaway after he rescues Janet from the Quantum Realm.
Agent Woo
There’s an extended dialogue sequence at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, where Agent Woo and Scott, due to a confusion, think they’re setting a date to hang out. In the opening montage of the new movie, we see that the two men eventually become friends and do hang out. We even see Agent Woo materializing his business card; apparently Scott taught him the close-up magic he referenced in the prior film.
Avengers Recollections
We hear about the Avengers’ adventures from Scott Lang’s perspective during the car scene because Scott is listening to his own audiobook. He discusses being turned into a baby, which is something that happened in Endgame when Bruce Banner experiments with time travel.
We also see that Cassie has some of her details wrong. Ant-Man teamed with Captain America; he didn’t fight against him.
Star Wars Homage #1: Cantina
The visual depiction of the Quantum Realm is heavily inspired by Star Wars; there are at least three clear homages during this movie. The first is this bar scene. It is framed exactly like the Cantina scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, right down to the odd crew of alien customers.
Krylar
The character Krylar, played by Bill Murray, is a very obscure character. He appears in a single issue of the Incredible Hulk comics, where he uses a machine to create an Anti-Hulk.
Star Wars Homage #2: Clone Troopers
Here’s another homage to Star Wars. When we see Kang gathering his army, it’s reminiscent of the end of Episode II: Attack of the Clones, when the Emperor gathers his Clone Army to fight against the Separatist Droids. This, in turn, was inspired by the Nazi-produced feature film Triumph of the Will (1935). Given Kang’s megalomaniacal tendencies, this tracks.
Incursions
In Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we learn about incursions, which occur when two universes collide with each other. Kang brings these up during his monologue, which suggests that we haven’t seen the last of these universe-destroying phenomena.
A Different Thor
Kang discusses defeating and killing Avengers in other alternate universes. He asks if Ant-Man is the one with the hammer—a clear reference to Thor.
This suggests that in the future, it would be possible for the multiverse Avengers to team up and defeat Kang. It could be a possible way to bring back Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark or Chris Evans as Steve Rogers, even if it’s for a single movie or movie scene.
Star Wars Homage #3: Rise of Skywalker
Late in the movie, the arrival of all the starships from the Quantum Realm, which band together to defeat Kang, is highly reminiscent of a scene at the end of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, when all the starships arrive at Exegol to defeat Palpatine.
Meet M.O.D.O.K.
In the comics, M.O.D.O.K. (which stands for Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) is George Tarleton, who experiments on himself in order to increase his intelligence and transforms himself into a giant-headed freak.
In the new movie, M.O.D.O.K. is reimagined as an alias of Darren Cross, the former CEO of Pym Technologies from the first movie, who is transformed and mutated by Kang to lead Kang’s forces.
Stature Origin
In the comics, Scott’s daughter Cassie becomes the superhero Stature, who, like Ant-Man, can grow and shrink her size, but is better known for her ability to grow. The end of the movie, where she grows to stop Kang, is foreshadowing this likely future.
Cassie becomes a Young Avenger in the comics, and there’s a lot of young superheroes in the MCU who would be perfect for such a team. Imagine Kate Bishop, Kamala Khan, Cassie Lang, Yelena Belova, and Riri Williams all banding together. That would be incredible.
Blame Sylvie, Strange, and Wanda
This movie is a culmination of three different events from Phase 4. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Strange meddled with the multiverse, causing individuals from other universes to visit ours. In Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, we see Wanda and Strange visiting other universes, and we meet America Chavez, who can traverse the Multiverse.
But these events merely destabilized things. The real kicker is what Sylvie did when she killed He Who Remains, the man in charge of pruning the disparate timelines. Because of his death, an infinite number of Kangs, who were once unable to to work with each other, were able to collude and consolidate their power.
He Who Remains
During his speech to Loki and Sylvie in the final episode of Loki Season 1, Kang makes reference to a scientist version of himself, who discovered the multiverse and worked with others to become more powerful. This may be the same Kang the Conqueror in Quantumania, who also claimed to be a scientist and was banished to the Quantum Realm for his radical mindset.
He Who Remains warned Loki and Sylvie that if they thought he was evil, his variants were even worse. We’re getting a brief taste of that right now.
Sacred Timeline
We see the Sacred Timeline branching off in infinite directions. The filmmakers visualized the Timeline the same way they did in Loki, where we see it on the TVA monitors.
Mid-Credits Scene: Multiple Kang Meeting
What makes Kang such a frightening villain in the comics is that there are an infinite number of Kangs ready to replace him. We see this in the mid-credits scene, when a massive horde of Kangs meets up after Kang the Conqueror dies.
In the comics, the closest approximation of this group is the Council of Kangs, which is led by an evil version of Kang known as Kang-Prime. In the mid-credits scene, we see several prominent notable versions of Kang from the comics, such as Rama-Tut, Immortus, and Scarlet Centurion.
The mid-credits scene also reiterates a common MCU trope: Our heroes create their own worst enemies. When Sylvie killed “He Who Remains,” she set the stage for Kang the Conqueror. And now that Kang is dead, the Council of Kangs is set to take his place. It never fails: The replacement is always worse than what came prior.
End Credits Scene: Loki and Mobius
We see Loki and Mobius in the crowd for a scientific demonstration, which is run by a Kang variant known as Victor Timely. In the comics, Timely settled in America circa 1901, where he was mayor of a town and developed advanced technologies in secret. No doubt, Timely will factor heavily into Loki Season 2, which is set to release later this year.