Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania theories and questions

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania units up the remainder of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5 and 6 tales, largely by introducing the deeply bizarre multiverse villain Kang and his infinite counterparts as a menace to everybody in the MCU. That leaves quite a lot of questions open by the finish of the movie, as Marvel teases bits of the story to come back. But Quantumania’s frantic tempo and uneven modifying left us with different questions, because of gaps in the story that didn’t appear solely deliberate. The Polygon crew who noticed the film put our heads collectively after the movie to speak about issues we’d questioned throughout or after the film, from the slight and foolish to the severe and complicated. Here’s what we’re questioning at this level.

[Ed. note: Significant spoilers ahead for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as well as Loki season 1.]

Why was Kang the Conqueror exiled?

Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

This one really appears necessary to the film’s story. There is an infinite variety of Kangs, however the one booted down into the Quantum Realm by the Council of Kangs apparently did one thing so unconscionable that the remainder of them couldn’t deal with it, and Quantumania barely glances off that concept. It’s implied that he wished to deal with an upcoming disaster — nearly actually the menace of Incursions (see under) — in a different way than they did. And he means that if the heroes kill him, “everyone will die” consequently. But the allusions to his crime are intentionally obscure and superficial.

What does the Council of Kangs need?

An arena filled with “thousands” of Kangs from different universes in the multiverse, all gesturing, clapping, and talking. “Wonderful!” “Superb!” “An excellent grasp of the essentials!” “Record time!” in Avengers #292 (1988).

We’ll be taught extra about this in subsequent motion pictures, however for the second, what we have now is what Loki realized in season 1 of Loki from He Who Remains, the model of Kang who was supposedly freezing the total timeline right into a single arc earlier than a variant model of Loki kills him. “Someone is coming,” Loki tells Time Variance Authority boss Mobius (Owen Wilson) instantly after that Kang dies. “Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they’re all set on war. We need to prepare.”

What precisely does “set on war” imply? According to He Who Remains, lots of the infinite variants of himself are combative, with “each variant fighting to preserve their universe and annihilate the others.” We’re prone to see a few of that in the MCU’s future, however the Council of Kangs appears to be a distinct factor altogether. It means that no less than a few of the variants — presumably united below Immortus, the tall, bearded, very outdated Kang seen in the film’s first post-credits scene — need to work collectively as a substitute, to answer a sequence of Incursions into the timeline. But what does that imply?

What’s inflicting the Incursions?

Wanda, eyes glowing red, conjuring a red spell while wearing a red crown in the WandaVision finale

As we realized in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Incursions occur when two universes threaten to collide. As alternate-universe Reed Richards (John Krasinski) explains it, “An Incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes, and they collide. Destroying one, or both, entirely.”

One of the issues that makes these boundaries erode? According to Reed, sloppy, smug dipshits like Stephen Strange crossing the borders between universes is a significant trigger. It’s potential that the Incursions the Kangs are responding to in Ant-Man 3’s post-credits scene are brought on by one thing we haven’t seen but, developing in a future MCU story. But it’s additionally potential that they’re responding to earlier, current MCU occasions — like Doctor Strange and America Chavez skipping willy-nilly between timelines and multiverses in Multiverse of Madness, chasing and/or fleeing Wanda Maximoff after her break with morality and sanity in WandaImaginative and prescient.

Does Kang the Conqueror have any powers?

What actually are Kang the Conqueror’s superpowers? In his preliminary arrival to the Quantum Realm, seen when Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) flashes again to her 30 years there, he simply appears like an peculiar man who’s misplaced, sweaty, hurting, and confused. But by the time Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and the Ant-Man household hit the microverse, Kang has telekinesis, hand-lasers, power fields, and a wide range of different skills.

If the MCU is following the Marvel Comics it’s adapting, Kang doesn’t have powers, other than the super-genius mind that lets him gear himself up in a wide range of methods in a wide range of multiverses. All the issues we see him do in Quantumania could be technological, and in all probability tied to that fancy go well with he’s sporting, with the face protect that makes his eyes glow blue. The film does appear to hold that out — in Quantumania, Janet Van Dyne even says that briefly powering up his broken ship with the power core they repaired collectively let him get his go well with again, which made him far more highly effective. It appears protected to imagine to this point that this Kang doesn’t have inherent superpowers — however that the MCU can just about give Kang any powers that match a narrative, and attribute them to far-future super-tech.

How many rattling layers are there to the Quantum Realm, anyway?

Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors) stands with his back to the camera, looking through a vast window on his vast CGI city in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

It’s mildly ridiculous that the Quantum Realm is radically totally different in each Ant-Man film, whether or not it’s an infinite, inescapable Void (in Ant-Man), a form of shifting, unstable power supply (in Ant-Man and the Wasp), or a Strange World-style fantasy universe with heavy Star Wars overtones (in Quantumania). Janet Van Dyne shrugs this off in a single, informal line about how the Quantum Realm has quite a lot of layers — this newest model is simply what you get if you go previous the Void and the power discipline and all that — however it certain raises the query of what number of extra variations of the Quantum Realm we’re going to get earlier than it’s throughout. It’s form of Schrödinger’s Plot Device — it may be no matter it must be for no matter story a given film is telling.

Does Bill Murray die in Ant-Man 3?

Bill Murray in close-up with his mouth hanging open as Lord Krylar of the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

It looks as if a waste of a superbly good Bill Murray to introduce him in the MCU (as Janet’s outdated Quantum Realm flame Lord Krylar) and then instantly kill him off, however it certain looks as if the film did precisely that, by feeding him to a supersized, clearly pissed-off model of a creature that the locals devour of their cocktails. But the film clearly doesn’t deal with whether or not he really escapes or not. This one could rely on what number of extra MCU cameos Murray seems like doing. Krylar is a enjoyable character, however he could not have a lot function exterior of his native Quantum Realm. On the different hand, we’re in a multiverse state of affairs with a billion trillion Kangs operating round, so it’s at all times potential we’ll see an alt model of him sometime, even when the authentic acquired munched.

Did Hank Pym simply go away a large ant military to take over the Quantum Realm?

It actually looks as if there could be moral points with simply dropping a complete “class 2 civilization” of immense, high-tech ants into an present populated world. The ants have an enormous military with warriors that dwarf the native humanoid inhabitants, and all types of killer laser know-how. As we see in the movie, they’re able to overrunning and smashing total cities. Aren’t they going to make issues much more uncomfortable for the Quantum Realm natives? Even in the event that they do at the moment have a peaceable, socialist society, no less than for no matter “socialism” means to Hank?

Where are Luis and the remainder of Scott’s crew?

Dave (Tip “T.I.” Harris), Luis (Michael Peña), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian), Scott Lang’s crime crew, sit in a generic room looking over their shoulders at the camera in Ant-Man

OK, Quantumania spends most of its run time in the Quantum Realm, so there isn’t a complete lot of time to examine in with Scott’s outdated buddy Luis (Michael Peña) and his homeboys Dave (Tip “T.I.” Harris) and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). But the film is bookended with scenes of Scott’s super-happy, fulfilling, got-everything-he-wants-and-feeling-good-about-it life on Earth. And he can’t make time to drop in on his outdated pals, and even point out them and what they’re as much as? Is he too good for them, now that he’s a big-time memoir writer and occasional world-saver?

And listed below are a few bonus questions:

Is the Kang from Loki the Kang from Ant-Man 3?

This one isn’t a query we had, as a result of we just about all have to look at each Marvel factor to maintain up on the story for work functions. But judging from Google, lots of people are confused about this, so we figured we’d convey it up. No, he isn’t. The Kang in Loki (performed, like all Kangs to this point, by Jonathan Majors) was He Who Remains, a variant of Kang who dominated over all the timelines to ensure all the different Kangs wouldn’t come into existence and begin a large struggle. When Loki’s variant from one other timeline, Sylvie, killed He Who Remains, the multiverse splintered once more, and all these different Kangs we see in Quantumania had immediately been there all alongside, all through historical past. That’s time-travel for you!

Does Kang die in Ant-Man 3?

This is one other one individuals have been asking Google. Yes, Kang dies in Ant-Man 3. Definitively. Director Peyton Reed confirmed it to Polygon in an interview. That Kang, Kang the Conqueror, the one who fought Ant-Man and the Wasp in the Quantum Realm, is formally useless. The different Kangs affirm it too, in the post-credits scene. No, there isn’t a physique, as a result of he acquired sucked right into a particular impact. And no, Scott/Ant-Man isn’t actually clear on what occurred to him, whether or not he’s useless, and what it means. But for our functions as the viewers, that one Kang and the authentic Loki Kang are each fully and totally useless.

But then, one in all the issues that basically defines Kang as a personality is his skill to time-travel and change actuality, so in true comedian guide fashion, no ending can ever be thought of last, no character can ever actually be thought of useless, and all dying swimming pools are invalid without end. Welcome to the multiverse, of us.