Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's credits scenes, explained
Phase five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is officially underway. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sets the stage for the next several years of Marvel movies, teasing the studio's overarching storyline leading up to a major crossover event. So what did we learn about what's next from those credits scenes? Let's break it down — with spoilers ahead:
What happens in the first 'Quantumania' credits scene?
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania goes out with a Kang(s).
The film's first credits scene makes clear that if you cut off one Kang's head, many more will take its place. Although the main Kang of the movie is defeated and seemingly killed, countless alternate versions of him from throughout the multiverse assemble in what's known in the comics as the Council of Kangs.
As a refresher, the Disney+ series Loki provided vital context on all this, introducing the idea of "variants," alternate versions of a character from another timeline. At the end of time, Loki meets a Kang variant, also played by Jonathan Majors, known as He Who Remains. He explains that in the 31st century, versions of himself from different timelines made contact, and they began to share technology and knowledge. But some of them only wanted to conquer the multiverse, leading to a war between the Kang variants. He Who Remains claims that he ended this "multiversal war" by creating the Time Variance Authority to erase the other timelines so there is now only one version of himself.
But He Who Remains says that if he's killed, the timeline will begin branching again, and an "infinite amount of me" will "start another multiversal war," warning, "If you think I'm evil, just wait until you meet my variants." Sure enough, He Who Remains dies in the Loki finale, and the effects of this ripple back through the present. That's why, in Quantumania, there are now once again countless timelines and countless Kangs, who can meet up because they all know how to traverse the multiverse.
So in the credits scene, we see that some of these Kangs are working together. They exiled one Kang variant, the main villain of Quantumania, into the Quantum Realm, after he apparently started a multiversal war. It sounds like he may have had a similar goal as He Who Remains, as this Kang was wiping out entire timelines and claims that time was "broken" by his variants. He warns Scott Lang that he's the only one who can "stop what's coming," e.g. the other Kang variants. So might he have been seeking to become the one true Kang, killing all the other versions of himself to stop them from messing with the multiverse and restoring a single timeline where he's in charge?
In the end, the Council of Kangs learns that Scott and Hope killed the exiled Kang. "They're beginning to touch the multiverse, and if we let them, they will take everything we've built," one of the Kangs says, likely also referring to the multiversal chaos of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. What they have built isn't totally clear. But perhaps these Kangs are plotting to conquer their respective timelines and fear the Avengers of our universe could try to stop them or even combine all the timelines together again.
It's then revealed that every single Kang variant has been called together, and they're preparing for battle. We can presume this is happening outside of time based on a shot of the branching timelines that resembles the Loki finale. This is all leading to the next Avengers film, 2025's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and the scene suggests the Avengers will have to face off against not just one Kang, but thousands of them.
Who are the Kang variants in the credits scene?
There are too many to even count, but the one who seems to be in charge — the Kang with a raspy voice, who calls all the others together — appears to be Immortus.
In the comics, there are also many versions of Kang as a result of the character traveling through time. One of them is called Immortus, and he's an older Kang from the future. Immortus is the one who created the Council of Kangs, "a group of Kang divergent counterparts that judge other Kangs," in an effort to "eliminate all Kangs across time," as Marvel.com explains. He's typically meant to be more peaceful than the regular Kang, though that doesn't appear to be the case in the MCU, probably because He Who Remains in Loki was already sort of like Immortus from the comics.
We also see a Kang in Quantumania who appears to be Rama-Tut. In the comics, that's the version of Kang from when he went back in time to rule ancient Egypt. This was the form we saw him in during his very first appearance, and since the Fantastic Four battled Rama-Tut, this raises the question of whether he could appear in the 2025 Fantastic Four film. Chronologically, in the comics, Kang takes on the Rama-Tut identity before he becomes Kang the Conqueror.
It's a little unclear who the third Kang in this last scene is, though he could be based on Iron Lad. In the comics, that's a younger version of Kang, who is created after adult Kang travels into the past to prevent an incident where he was attacked and hospitalized by bullies, leading the younger Kang to himself travel into the past. This heroic version of Kang goes on to form the Young Avengers. Another option is that this could be Scarlet Centurion, a version of Kang who wears armor inspired by Doctor Doom's, though it could also be a totally new Kang variant.
There's also a green Kang in the bottom left of the last shot who looks like he might be a Skrull, one of the shapeshifting aliens from Captain Marvel. So could the next time we see a Kang variant be in this year's Disney+ Secret Invasion show, which involves Skrulls infiltrating the Earth?
Either way, the MCU's rules would suggest these are all separate Kang variants from their own timelines, rather than the same Kang from various points in the same timeline.
What happens in the second 'Quantumania' credits scene, and who is Victor Timely?
The film's second credits scene looks like it's just pulled straight out of Loki season 2.
In it, we see Jonathan Majors playing yet another Kang variant in the early 20th century named Victor Timely, whom Loki and Mobius are observing. In the comics, Victor Timely was an identity of Kang after he traveled back in time to 1901. As Victor Timely, an inventor, he founds the town of Timely, Wisconsin, becomes its mayor, and introduces various advancements in technology while hiding his identity as a man from the future.
This scene confirms for the first time that Majors will be in Loki season 2. The first season ended with Loki winding up in the wrong timeline after the death of He Who Remains, a timeline where Kang appears to rule the Time Variance Authority. So this scene suggests the second season will involve Loki trying to warn the Time Variance Authority about the threat of Kang, possibly traveling the multiverse with Mobius in an attempt to stop all the Kangs one at a time.
Is the 'Quantumania' Kang variant really dead?
One big surprise with Quantumania is that the Kang we meet in the movie may not be the one who the Avengers will face, as he apparently dies at the end.
This raises the question of who the "main" Kang villain will be by the time we get to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. It's possible there won't really be one, or it could be Immortus, as he seems to be leading the Council of Kangs. But another possibility is that the Kang of Quantumania actually didn't die and was merely sucked into his energy core. If that's the case, one popular fan theory has been that Kang, potentially even this variant of him from Quantumania, could end up being the MCU's version of the Beyonder.
In the comics, the Beyonder is a cosmic being who, during the original Secret Wars storyline, kidnaps Marvel characters and forces them to fight on a planet called Battleworld. Marvel is currently building to 2026's Avengers: Secret Wars as its next Avengers: Endgame-level event. So if the plan is to adapt the Battleworld plot, the thinking is that Kang could fill the Beyonder role. This could mean the Kang of Quantumania will somehow turn into the Beyonder after surviving the events of the film and gaining powers through the energy core. Alternatively, when this movie's Kang warned Scott that he's the only one who can stop what's coming, maybe he was talking not just about the Council of Kangs, but about the Beyonder, the most threatening variant of himself. It's also possible the main Quantumania Kang and Victor Timely could be one and the same.
For now, though, the Council of Kangs at least believes that this Kang is dead, and it might make sense to introduce a new Kang variant as the big bad so that viewers who skip Quantumania won't be overly confused by The Kang Dynasty. But we'll get a better sense of where this is all going when Loki season 2 debuts sometime this summer.
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