Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania's ending sets up Avengers 5
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania spoilers follow.
Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania – out now on Disney+ – heralded the launch of MCU's Phase 5, but perhaps didn't get quite the critical reception or box-office receipts that Marvel was hoping for.
The movie has the distinct misfortune of being the direct set-up for Avengers 5, aka Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. As such, almost all of its story is subsumed by the need to establish who Kang is and what the new iteration of the Avengers will be up against.
Where OG Marvel movies left set-up for sequels to the credits scenes, contemporary MCU vehicles spend a lot of screen time on exposition for stories that are years in the making, leaving fans frustrated in the present. You'll be forgiven, then, if you lose track of the plot or have subsequently forgotten what happened.
As you'll remember, the catalyst for Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania is Cassie sending a signal into the Quantum Realm, which Kang (Jonathan Majors) exploits to suck Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and company into the Quantum Realm. The group are separated, with Scott and Cassie (Kathryn Newton) marooned with rebellion fighters (lead by William Harper Jackson and Katy O'Brian) while Hank (Michael Douglas), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) far away and trying to find them.
Janet confesses that while she was trapped in the Quantum Realm she befriended a stranded Kang (yet to reveal his villainous ways) and was helping him escape when she realised, by touching his mind-melded ship, that he planned to eradicate various worlds to rule them all. To stop him escaping, she uses Pym particles to magnify the core of Kang's ship, stranding them both there.
Kang, still holding a grudge, needs Scott's Pym particles to shrink the core to a useable size so he can escape, and he threatens to kill Cassie if Scott doesn't help. After much consternation, Scott and Hope get the core but Kang doesn't release Cassie.
War ensues, with Hank coming to the rescue with an army of super intelligent ants, and the portal opening between the Quantum Realm and the 'real world'. Cassie, Hank, Janet, and Hope go through but Kang hasn't been thwarted just yet. He and Scott fight but Hope delivers the final blow, kicking Kang into the core which they then shrink with Pym particles, seemingly crushing him to death.
In the real world, Cassie re-opens the portal with her Quantum Realm signal probe and the two return home, happily ever after. Only Scott is worried — Kang had said that there was something bad coming, and in his closing voice over Scott worries: "Did I just kill everyone?... It's probably fine."
Spoiler alert: it isn't fine!
The mid-credits scene reveals the thing that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was building towards: the council of Kangs. While Kang as we know him may be dead, there are countless others including the real big bad, Immortus, who, having summoned 'all of us' Kangs, rallies them by saying, "They will take everything we built, so let's stop wasting time."
But wait, there's more! In the final post-credit scene, we see another Kang — a man named Victor Timely — on stage in what seems to be the 1900s talking to an audience about time manipulation. In the audience are two familiar faces: a concerned looking Loki and a less-concerned-looking Mobius.
So, what does it all mean? Well, we're headed towards Kang Dynasty and the clash between one of the biggest villains in the MCU and the new team of Avengers. How?
Majors himself explained it to Digital Spy and other press, revealing Kang is a Nexus being, just like Wanda Maximoff AKA The Scarlet Witch.
"There are multiple versions of Kang. 'Versions' being variants," he said. "They occupy different universes, multiverses, they have different intentions. They are all different beings."
However, they do all share a common trait, a through line that connects them, which Majors calls "the Kang gene in a nutshell." Avengers 5 will likely see that through-line crystallising into a plan that only the Avengers can stop (we hope).
Some eagle-eyed fans think there could be another twist in the Ant-Man story before we get to that. Many believe that when Scott and Cassie return 'home', they have actually ended up in an alternate reality as things don't look quite the same.
It's a theory that writer Jeff Loveness has spoken about, and we should perhaps listen to him as he is also the screenwriter for Avengers 5.
"I think it's very interesting," Loveness told ComicBook of the fan theory. "I can't say much. It actually is not too far off from some possibilities, but I can't say anything.
"For now, the only important thing to say is that the multiverse is limitless and Scott Lang was the man who saved the universe in [Avengers: Endgame] and now he may be the person who accidentally f**ked up the multiverse for everybody."
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is streaming on Disney+.
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