Editor’s Note: The following article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.With the highly anticipated release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has officially begun! The second Phase in what Marvel has titled “The Multiverse Saga”, the third entry in the Ant-Man franchise certainly has much to prove. It has to be a worthy continuation of a beloved property, it needs to point Marvel fans in the direction of where the saga’s overarching story is leading, and it needs to introduce the main antagonist who is primed to become the next Thanos (Josh Brolin) of the MCU.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania succeeds in virtually all of that, but it also achieves a fourth goal of including a bunch of Marvel Easter eggs, of which there are many. To find out how many, read below for every single Easter egg we see in the third Ant-Man film.
Ant-Man is Popular Now
When audiences are once again reintroduced to burglar-turned-size-shifting hero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), we see that he’s become quite popular. Turns out his role in reversing the infamous “Blip” in Avengers: Endgame didn’t go unnoticed, as dozens of adoring fans can be seen with Ant-Man themed merch. This is a stark contrast to one of the funniest moments in Avengers: Endgame where Scott and some other Avengers are talking in a diner. The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) gets instantly recognized, but none of the kids excited to see the incredible green giant are even remotely interested in getting a picture with the bug guy.
“Thank You, Spider-Man!”
This one’s pretty easy. When Scott gets his morning cup of coffee at his favorite coffee joint, the shop owner, Ruben (Ruben Rabasa) says “Thank you, Spider-Man!”. Clearly, there’s been a mix-up, as the San Francisco café owner mixed up Scott with New York’s Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Tom Holland).
Opening Montage Cameos
Speaking of Amigos star Ruben Rabasa, he’s not the only one who makes a brief cameo appearance while Scott is out enjoying his life as a super-powered celebrity. Other bystanders who can be seen walking past Scott include Buzzfeed Unsolved host Ryan Bergara, alternative rock musician Eef Barzelay, and The Villains of Valley View star Patricia Belcher
Jimmy Woo Returns
In Scott Lang’s second solo adventure, Ant-Man and the Wasp, we met Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park). Woo was essentially Scott’s handler when he was put under house arrest for his role in assisting Captain America (Chris Evans) whilst the Captain was branded a fugitive during Captain America: Civil War. They have a strange relationship, not close enough to be friends and not far enough to be enemies, but they do seem to strike a rapport of mutual respect for one another. Jimmy Woo returned to the MCU to help deal with the Westview crisis in Wandavision, but as we see in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, he hasn’t forgotten about his old friend Scott Lang. In a brief yet satisfying cameo, we see Scott and Jimmy catching up over lunch.
Baskin-Robbins
In the first Ant-Man, Scott tried to make a living by working a dead-end job at a popular ice cream chain, Baskin-Robbins. His role there is short-lived, as his manager Dale (Gregg Turkington) discovers that Scott is an ex-con and fires him while still admitting that robbing a tech company was a pretty “cool crime”. Once Scott became a world-renowned superhero, that seemed to change as he returns to his former work to do a press photo shoot with Dale in Quantumania. As the age-old adage goes, “Baskin-Robbins always finds out”.
The Blip’s Societal Impact Persists
When Scott and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) go to bail Cassie (Kathryn Newton) out of jail, they quickly learn that the reason for her incarceration was a noble one. As Cassie explains, she was arrested following a clash between police and peaceful protestors looking to raise awareness around the homelessness crisis created by the Blip. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier first introduced this concept with the Flag Smashers – a radical organization that felt the Blip’s reversal caused more harm than good. Despite their actions as terrorists, their intentions were pure, and clearly, their sentiments have gone on to like-minded people who are looking for change.
“Guy Dressed Like a Bee”
Although Cassie loves her dad and his superhero persona, things haven’t exactly been easy for the young aspiring hero. Her problems really began in 2015 when a much younger Cassie was held hostage by Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), also known as Yellowjacket. Even though Scott was able to defeat Cross, the incident still left a mark on Cassie as she mentions on the car ride from prison. We’ll have a lot more to say on Darren Cross and his surprising role in Quantumania momentarily.
Scott’s Memoir
Possibly wanting to chronicle his integral part in reversing the Blip, Scott wrote a memoir to further explain his tenure as an Avenger (and it’s a book that fans can actually buy and pick up for themselves). As we learn in Scott’s audio track for the book, he name-drops a couple of key events and a few figures he worked with during Endgame. These include the time that Hulk accidentally turned Scott into an infant and the time he met a walking-talking Raccoon (Bradley Cooper).
When Scott Met Captain America
The last of the direct MCU movie callbacks occurs when the Lang-Pym family is having a family dinner. There, Cassie mentions she misses her father’s rebellious nature, directly citing his role in the airport fight during Captain America: Civil War. Scott’s certainly proud of the moment he (technically) became an Avenger, but also doesn’t want the still-inexperienced Cassie to blindly follow the same irresponsible path he did.
Quantum Realm Freedom Fighters
When Scott and Cassie are launched into the Quantum Realm and stumble upon an entire intelligent society, they meet the freedom fighters who are openly opposing Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), all of which appear to be original characters with no comic history. Examples include the group’s leader, Jentorra (Katy M. O’Brian), who immediately distrusts the humans fearing they may lead Kang to their base. Also in the mix is Quaz (William Jackson Harper), a mind-reader referred to in the film as a telepath, which is a buzzword that almost every X-Men fan will recognize. There’s also one other character who isn’t a familiar face but is a familiar voice.
Damian Dastmalchian as Veb
Ant-Man fans will likely be a bit disappointed to learn that Scott Lang’s right-hand man and best friend, Luis (Michael Peña), does not return for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, we do see the return of David Dastmalchian (The Suicide Squad), but not as the Eastern European sidekick Kurt that he played in the first two films. Instead, Dastmalchian voices a new character with Veb – the jelly-like life form whose “ooze” functions as a universal translator for all who drink it. Even though it’s a new and unrelated character, Veb’s obsession with holes continues to make Dastmalchian an excellent source of comic relief.
Krylar
Bill Murray has a brief role in Quantumania as Krylar, a former colleague of Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has sense sworn his loyalty to Kang in Janet’s absence. In the comics, Krylar goes by the alias of the Steward of All Assassins, originally a green-skinned alien who hails from the civilization of K’ai. Though K’ai’s fate in Quantumania seems fairly definitive, he also has a connection to the Hulk in the comics and perhaps will return to the MCU with that signature green skin.
M.O.D.O.K.’s True Identity
Remember when we said we’d be talking about Darren Cross some more? Well, that’s because Cross returns to the MCU as the infamous M.O.D.O.K., which stands for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing. Turns out, when Scott caused Darren to go subatomic, it mutated the villain once known as Yellowjacket and sent him to the Quantum Realm. There he was found by Kang, who transformed Darren into an unstoppable hunter that he would send out to assassinate or retrieve the greatest threats to his empire. Though it looks like Darren has accepted his fate as an unstoppable murder machine, he ultimately spends his final moments with a change of heart where he sacrifices himself to deal a major blow to Kang.
Kang’s Origins (and How They Connect to ‘Loki’)
Before Kang became a multiverse conquering tyrant, he was one of many “variants” of the same person, who all agreed to work together to build a perfect society. That proved ill-fated due to variants like Kang who wanted power for themselves. Kang proved especially troublesome and was banished by his peers to the Quantum Realm to end his days of wanton conquering in the timeline. If this talk of variants and timelines sounds familiar, that’s because all these concepts were introduced in Loki. In fact, Loki also introduced a variant of Kang calling himself “He Who Remains”, and he’s kept himself and the other variants at bay through the creation of the TVA and the Sacred Timeline. When he was killed by Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), she wittingly opened the floodgates with the return of Kang and all his hundreds of variants, all of which are more than willing to wreak havoc on the multiverse once more.
Kang Has Fought the Avengers
While in Kang’s custody, Scott tries to make himself look like a big deal by stating he’s an Avenger. This does little to impress Kang as he’s actually dealt with the Avengers before, killing them so many times to the point where they all blend together in his memory. Kang does remember “the one with the hammer”, that of course being the God of Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Having fought and defeated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at least dozens of times, Kang’s next inevitable conflict with them will likely lead to some shocking results.
Kang’s Variants
Though Kang has seemingly been defeated, the first end-credits scene of Quantumania shows that the Conqueror was only the beginning, as there are three other variants who are building their own Kang army. The first of the three is unmistakably Rama-Tut – a variant of Kang who went back in time to Ancient Egypt and took control of the entire world. The second is a bit trickier to guess, but given his silver metal exoskeleton, this could very well be Iron Lad – a slightly younger Kang who wound up breaking good and becoming a founding member of the Young Avengers. Finally, there’s the most powerful variant of all, Immortus, a variant so powerful that he was able to take control over the most troublesome versions of Kang like the Conqueror. As the three plot their next move, we see they have summoned every version of themselves across the multiverse for the next stage of their plan.
Victor Timely
The second end-credits scene appears to be a scene ripped straight out of Loki season two, and introduces yet another Kang variant. This one is Victor Timely, who in the comics, is a Kang that went back in time to the early 1900s and used his knowledge of the future to essentially become the Tony Stark of the timeline. Having seen what these variants are capable of, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) looks at Victor Timely with a horrified expression, while his time-cop partner Mobius (Owen Wilson) doesn’t think he looks all that dangerous.
“Kang Will Return”
Many probably expected the final message at the end of the film to say something along the lines of “Ant-Man and the Wasp Will Return” but that’s not the case here. Instead, the final message states that the film’s villain, Kang, will once again cause trouble for the MCU. This isn’t really a surprise given a movie called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty has already been announced, but this is the second time in MCU history where a villain is mentioned in the after-credits tease title, the first being “Thanos Will Return” at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now available on Disney+.
