I love the atmosphere in the theater when the credits start to roll after a Marvel movie. We’re sad that the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is over and we’ll have to wait months for the next chapter—but we know those delicious post-credit scenes are coming, and the excitement is always palpable. Will a new character be revealed? Will the movie we just watched tie into another story we love?
At Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we waited with bated breath for the post-credits—and they didn’t disappoint.
Here’s a rundown of both post-credit scenes in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania! There are major spoilers ahead, obviously.
The Council of Kangs
In the comics, the Council of Kangs is a coalition of Kang variants that forms to eliminate problematic Kangs. Now, we get to see the Council on the big screen!
The scene opens on a colosseum. In a dark hall, we meet three Kang variants. One is Rama-Tut, a Kang who dresses like an Egyptian pharaoh. Another is Immortus, a rasping Kang with a tall blue crown who forms the council in the comics. The third variant, who could be the MCU’s version of Scarlet Centurion, has cybernetic implants. The three of them confirm that “the exiled one” is dead—but he wasn’t killed by any other Kang. Instead, Immortus tells the other two that “they” have started to “touch the multiverse,” and they’ll “take it all away.” As he speaks, he looks out a window at the multiverse itself: a glowing, branching time stream that we first saw in the season finale of Loki.
Who is “they?” The Avengers, presumably. Immortus tells the other two that he’s summoned all the other Kangs to deal with the problem. They walk out into the colosseum, where we see Kang after Kang after Kang appearing. The stands are full of screaming, cheering Kangs. There are tons of Kangs. Thousands of Kangs. Like holy crap, that’s a lot of Kangs.
And they’re all about to be unleashed on the MCU.
What does this mean for the Multiverse Saga, going forward? It means that the bad feeling Scott gets at the end of the movie is spot on. The war for control of the multiverse is about to blow up. But it also seems unlikely that the war will be every Kang for himself, since at least a few thousand seem to be working together.
Victor Timely and his fantabulous time-traveling contraption
If you felt a shockwave rattle your windows this weekend, it was from thousands of Loki fans’ heads exploding at the same time.
In the second post-credit scene, we see an old-fashioned wooden stage in front of an audience of people who are wearing clothes from the early 1900s. A curtain opens to reveal a sign with the name “Victor Timely” on it, and a device that can only be described as a thingamajig, or a whatchamacallit. On the stage stands another Kang variant, wearing a suit, mustache, and spectacles. This variant, named Victor Timely, introduces his contraption by asking the audience, “what if you could control time?”
We cut to the audience, where Loki is watching the presentation. Loki gasps and says, “It’s him!”
Next to Loki is Agent Mobius of the Time Variance Authority. Mobius is skeptical. “Him? You made him sound like this terrifying figure,” he says.
“He is,” Loki replies. The camera lingers for a moment on Loki’s face as he stares at Timely in horror.
The scene is a reference to the season 1 finale of Loki, in which Loki and Sylvie discover that the TVA is secretly controlled by a Kang Variant called He Who Remains. After Sylvie kills He Who Remains, Loki finds that the TVA is now controlled by another Kang variant.
This scene has big implications for season 2 of Loki, coming out this summer. Presumably, we’ll catch up with Victor Timely at some point in the series, as Loki and Mobius travel through time, trying to prevent Kang’s multiversal war. It could mean that Loki and Mobius will find Kang variants scattered throughout the timeline. But what is this particular variant’s plan?
In the comics, Victor Timely is an alias that Kang takes on after traveling back in time to 1901 Wisconsin. There, he founds the town of Timely and becomes its mayor, playing the long game in his quest for multiversal domination. His presence in the past means that Kangs have already started to infiltrate various points in the multiverse. How do you defeat a multiverse-hopping threat that’s destined to generate infinite variants of himself? The Avengers are clearly in big trouble.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
Published: Feb 16, 2023 03:00 pm