Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has kicked off with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. Everything in the MCU lately is centered around the idea of the Multiverse. It began in Loki, headed into Spider-Man: No Way Home, and kept going through Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Now it’s Ant-Man’s turn. We are traveling to the Quantum Realm to see what kind of timey wimey, reality-bending adventures the gang can get into. Let’s look at all the Quantumania Easter Eggs you might have missed.
Warning!!!! There Will Be Spoilers For Quantumania And Other MCU Properties Ahead!!!!!!!
We see that Scott has become a celebrity after he helped save the world and possibly the universe in Avengers: Endgame. In Ms. Marvel, we learned that Scott had a popular podcast called Big Me Little Me. Now he has transitioned into writing a book about his adventures as Ant-Man. We learn that he has semi-retired as he wants to spend time with his family but will answer the call if the Avengers ever need his help again. This is not the first time we hear about Scott’s book. During a news report in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, at the bottom of the screen, a news ticker says that Scott Lang had released a book called Look Out For The Little Guy.
During a montage that catches us up on Lang’s life as he is reading from his book, we see that Scott and Jimmy Woo are having dinner together. Scott does another magic trick to make Jimmy laugh. This all goes back to a scene between them in Ant-Man And The Wasp. Jimmy is interested in Scott’s use of up-close magic and starts to practice on his own to see if he can learn it. When Scott is finally freed from his home arrest, Jimmy awkwardly mentions they should have dinner sometime. Both men shrug and walk away from each other. We saw in WandaVision that Jimmy finally learned the card trick, but we never knew if they met for dinner. It looks like it’s something they have been keeping up with.
After The Avengers: Endgame brought back half of the population of Earth, a lot of the Marvel shows and movies have explained what life has been like Post-Blip. In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Aunt May is running a fundraiser for the victims of the Blip. We’ve seen how characters randomly returned in series like WandaVision and Hawkeye. Falcon And The Winter Soldier showed how those that returned could feel like they are being mistreated since they came back. In Quantumania, we find that Cassie Lang has been arrested.
She shrank a police cruiser during a protest over police clearing out a homeless encampment. When explaining all this to Scott, she mentions that the homeless population has exploded since the Blip happened, as the world wasn’t prepared to have all these people return unexpectedly. This is a great take on how everyone would react to such a strange predicament. It’s such a fun but small Quantumania easter egg that ties it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and makes it feel like the world has been moving forward since Endgame.
Fans were devastated when it was confirmed that his old heist crew would not return for this film. People loved Michael Pena and his penchant for recapping events as only his character can. T.I. and David Dastmalchian completed the group with their unique skills that came in handy at just the right time. While Pena and T.I. didn’t get in the film this time, Dastmalchian did but playing a completely different character.
When Scott and Cassie land in the Quantum Realm, they encounter a group of characters that capture them and take them back to their village. Once there, they try and make Scott drink some pink ooze. It turns out that it works as a universal translator so they can all understand each other. This ooze comes from a character named Veb. He seems obsessed with how many holes other species have in their body. David Dastmalchian voices that character. As this off-the-wall character, he gets to have a lot of fun in this film.
Bill Murray shows up as a resistance fighter named Krylar. Janet used to fight along his side against Kang while she was stuck in the Quantum Realm. We see now that he has given up the fight and lives a luxurious lifestyle thanks to him joining forces with Kang. This surprises Janet, and she is sad to see what he has become. He meets his end when one of the the squid creatures that act as part of a fancy drink gets enlarged as a distraction and swallows him.
The character is actually a big deep cut from the comics, although is changed almost completely. In The Incredible Hulk # 156, Hulk gets sent to the Microverse. This is the same thing as the movie’s Quantum Realm. Krylar is the leader of a group of assassins and mercenaries. He is green, just like the Hulk. Before the issue ends, his character is killed. Seems like a long way to go to include him in this movie, but it makes for a fun Quantumania Easter Egg.
When Cassie uses her suit to enlarge herself like Scott does, she says it makes her very hungry. And that she really wants a lime. This is a call back to the first time we saw Scott use the suit to grow bigger instead of shrinking. During Captain America: Civil War, Scott grows to an enormous size to fight back against Iron Man’s team. When he shrinks back to normal size, he asks if anyone has any Orange Slices. Something about the process of growing to a giant size makes you want citrus. An interesting, if not consistent, side effect of the suit in the Ant-Man mythos.
During the first post-credits scene, we are introduced to more of Kang’s variants. Back in Loki, we met He Who Remains. He stated that when the timeline is split up, his variants cause a Multiversal War. This can lead to the destruction of everything. When Sylvie plunged a knife into the chest of He Who Remains, it plunged the sacred timeline into chaos and branched off time into innumerable possible alternate realities. Each reality has a different version of Kang. Because of this, there is almost an infinite versions of the mad conqueror. We are introduced to three of these variants during the first post-credits scene.
One is Egyptian-themed, and this would be Rama-Tut. He is a variant that went back in time to ancient Egypt to rule over the entire world. The second one in the scene could be a version of Kang’s Scarlet Centurion variant. This version of Kang came from a world where humanity never entered the Dark Ages. A future version of himself brought peace to the land, and he is thought to be that Kang’s descendant even though it’s just a younger version of himself. The last of the triad that we see is the most powerful one in Immortus. He is so powerful that he is able to rule over all the other Kangs. Then we are introduced to the Council Of Kangs. This is taken from the comics, where every version of Kang gets together to help plot how they can all take over their respective reality.
As we see the Council Of Kangs, some versions of Kang are teleporting in. Their portal is a blue square that rises to show them entering the area. If this looks familiar, it’s because we saw it before in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. When Strange is introduced to the Illuminati, Reed Richards enters the room this way. That makes perfect sense, as in the comics, Kang is a descendant of Reed Richards. He was born as Nathaniel Richards but eventually learned to harness complete control of time travel. With this power, he began to try to rule reality but has been stopped by The Avengers and The Fantastic Four on multiple occasions. A fun Quantumania Easter Egg you may have easily missed.
In the second post-credits scene, we are introduced to Victor Timely. This is a variant of Kang that hid in the early 20th century. In the comics, this version of Kang The Conqueror was noted to be this reality’s real version of Kang. Kang Prime, if you will. We will have to see if this is the same Kang that Scott shrank into the time core at the end of the film. But two people are hot on his trail to identify him as a threat. That would be Loki and Mobius from the Loki series. This helps set up what Season 2 of Loki will be about. Possibly time traveling to different periods to find Kangs hiding out from the TVA. Should be a fun season.
What Quantumania Easter Eggs did you spot? Let us know in the comments below.