Fans of This Beloved Character Were Finally Fed in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’
He's back, and he's very well-dressed.
In the months leading up to the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, many fans speculated that the movie would tie into the Disney+ series Loki. Turns out that those fans were right! Here are all the Loki references in Quantumania, including a bombshell at the end that quenched our thirst for our favorite trickster.
Major spoilers for Quantumania ahead!
A quick recap: how Quantumania ties into Loki
Just in case you’ve forgotten the season 1 finale of Loki, here’s a quick recap. Loki and Sylvie, trying to take down the Time Variance Authority, discover that the one pulling the strings is a guy named He Who Remains. He Who Remains explains that he created the Sacred Timeline in order to stop his infinite variants from destroying the multiverse in a war. He warns Loki and Sylvie that unless they take over the TVA and continue his mission of deleting all possible alternate timelines, then the multiverse will re-form and all his variants will return.
Now, in Quantumania, we’ve seen some of those variants, and they’re just as dangerous as He Who Remains warned.
Some subtle Loki references in Quantumania
Throughout the movie, we see and hear some subtle references to the Sacred Timeline and TVA. In one scene, Janet touches Kang’s ship, which is controlled by his thoughts. Janet sees into Kang’s mind and gets a glimpse of all the timelines he’s destroyed and all the people he’s killed—including one whose scream stutters and shorts out in the same way that others do when Alioth eats them.
In another scene, Kang draws a small representation of the Sacred Timeline, tracing a glowing circle in the air with his finger. Later, Kang describes how all the fighting among his variants led to incursions, and as he speaks, a bigger version of the multiverse appears around him, with timelines disappearing in small explosions as they collide.
Finally, in the first post-credit scene, the Kang variants Rama-Tut, Immortus, and Scarlet Centurion look out at the multiverse itself. Their view is exactly the same as He Who Remains’s view of the multiverse in Loki, and it’s possible that the Kangs’ colosseum is located at the end of time, like He Who Remains’s Citadel. Could they even be the same location?
Quantumania’s references to the multiverse are more than just part of Kang’s backstory, though. They signal that while Phase 4 felt largely disjointed, with most films and series having little to do with other, the elements of Phase 5 are starting to coalesce into a clearer overarching story.
But the multiverse visual effects weren’t the most exciting Loki reference in Quantumania.
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Loki and Mobius are back!
The most exciting part of Quantumania, for hardcore Loki fans like me, was the second post-credit scene with Loki and Mobius finally making cameo appearances outside of Loki. There were tons of rumors that Loki would appear in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and some speculation that he might show up in Thor: Love and Thunder, but none of that came to pass. After those disappointments, it was awesome to see him and Mobius finally show up.
In this scene, Loki and Mobius are in the late 1800s or early 1900s, watching a presentation by the Kang variant Victor Timely. Mobius is skeptical that the mild-mannered figure on the stage is the terrifying menace that Loki has warned him about, but Loki is terrified.
The scene is short, but it hints at a lot. It shows Loki as a Cassandra figure, believing he’s the only person in the multiverse who knows about the impending apocalyptic war. It sets up an interesting confrontation with Timely, which we’ll surely see come to fruition in an episode of Loki season 2 (because Marvel would never set up a plot point and then abandon it, right? Right?). It also hints at some of the time-hopping that Loki and Mobius will do in season 2. Thanks to some early footage and set photos, we know they’ll travel to the 1970s, and possibly the ’90s, too.
The best thing about this scene, though, is that it gives us a little peak at Loki and Mobius wearing old-fashioned clothing. The idea of Loki and Mobius in 1900-era suits and hats is even more exciting than the two of them in tuxedos, and I’ll die on that hill. If you can’t see how glorious Ol’ Timey Loki is, then I recommend picking up issue #5 of the Loki limited series, which takes place in the old west. Read it. Read it and understand.
I can’t wait to watch whatever episode this scene will tie into. I can’t wait to see Loki and Mobius time-traveling again. I can’t wait to get a better look at those suits! I can’t wait to see Loki continue to grow and evolve as a character, and watch his bond with Mobius deepen. Quantumania wasn’t a full meal for Loki fans, but it was a nice appetizer.
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
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