Who exactly are the Council of Kangs? What do they really want? And why is Bill Murray in this movie?
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" has left us with a ton of questions, and we want answers!
The whole plot of "Quantumania" kicks off because Cassie Lang designs a device that
can peer down into the Quantum Realm and map it. She tells her dad that the invention,
which she built with Hank and Hope's help, is based on Hank's journals. Cassie describes the
device as being like a satellite, while Hank compares it to the Hubble Telescope,
only designed to map subatomic universes instead of space. Whatever the exact details,
it's clearly meant to be a window, not a gate.
"It's like a satellite for deep space, or the ocean. But quantum."
However, its signal is strong enough for Kang to lock onto it from the Quantum Realm in only a matter of seconds and pull
the entire family down to his level. The question is, how? Kang is clearly unable to leave the
Quantum Realm without fully reactivating his multiverse drive -- that drives the plot of the
whole film. But he somehow is able to bring people down to him, which doesn't seem all
that different from getting out. Is it Cassie's device that makes this possible? For something
that is supposed to just be a scanner, it sure seems to do a lot more than that.
Perhaps the most perplexing part of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is that the film
doesn't really explain how the Quantum Realm actually works. That's partially
because its weird temporal properties make it impossible for us mere humans to understand,
but the film rarely even tries to address the rules of the world in a consistent way.
For instance, when the Lang gang is pulled into the tiny dimension by Kang, Hank's technologically
savvy ants are taken with them. They return in the film's final act as an advanced super-species,
having supposedly hit a temporal anomaly on their way down that allowed them to live
through thousands of years in a single second. While this is totally feasible within our
understanding of the Quantum Realm, it seems odd that it only happens to the ants. The five
main characters all land in the same temporal moment and in relatively close proximity. Krylar
has aged the same amount as Janet has since her departure, and when the crew escapes at the end,
no significant time has passed on Earth. Compare that to "Avengers: Endgame," where five Earth
years pass in the blink of an eye for Scott.
"That must have been a long five years." "Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours."
Again, this all technically makes sense, but why does the Quantum Realm only do weird time
stuff when it's convenient for the story? A consistent set of rules would help this feel
less like a contrived plot device. Then again, maybe it's just consistently inconsistent.
"See, the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable."
When Scott and company arrive in the Quantum Realm, they find a land that could fit into
nearly any sci-fi or fantasy universe. There are various alien species, weird technologies,
and bizarre flora and fauna -- just on a subatomic scale. But none of it feels
particularly unique. Overall, it comes across more like a far-away planet. Heck, it even has beer.
Since the Quantum Realm is so similar to Earth, it's not surprising to see humans walking
around. But it should be. Yet, while much of the sentient life in and around Axia is otherworldly,
there are plenty of people who just look like, well, people. Hank brings this up at one point
to Krylar, who gives a gross non-answer. After that, it's never brought up again.
So where do these humans come from? Are they descended from other Earth people who
were also trapped in the Quantum Realm? The movie has no interest in the answer.
If you're a fan of the comics, you probably weren't too surprised by Cassie Lang's superhero
transformation in "Quantumania." She's fought against numerous threats on the illustrated page,
operating under the monikers "Stinger" and "Stature" among others, and even joining the
Young Avengers at one point. She seems well on her way down the same path in the MCU,
with "Quantumania" revealing her own unique size-changing Ant-Man suit.
But while she mentions having a suit early on, she doesn't actually use it until Jentorra's
camp is being attacked almost halfway through the movie. Why doesn't she put it on during her
fall into the Quantum Realm to protect herself, like Scott and Hope do? Why not put it on when
her dad is being attacked by a giant alien squid? Why not give herself the best chance
of survival and put the dang suit on? It seemed like the suit was saved to
be a big dramatic reveal, but it was a real head-scratcher instead.
"Momentum, right? Jump, tap! Did you see what I did?"
"No! You're, like, this small!"
In a movie filled with broccoli-headed aliens and sentient ooze, the seemingly
ordinary Krylar still manages to be one of the most perplexing characters. His mere inclusion
in "Quantumania" feels like little more than a wink-and-nod to the audience, saying, "Look,
it's Bill Murray! Remember Bill Murray?" These days, audiences would likely respond with, "Yes,
he's the guy with all kinds of misconduct allegations against him going back decades."
It's a baffling time to write a character who's so transparently just a vehicle for the actor.
Krylar features in only one scene, and yet he gets almost as many lines as Jentorra.
And the character just doesn't add up. Krylar was apparently one of Janet's main allies in
her freedom-fighting campaign against Kang, and even her lover, but now he's a "lord" working for
Kang. Why is he so important in Kang's regime now? Why wouldn't Kang have just killed him?
It seems like the character's only purpose is to shoehorn in a cameo from an actor who,
these days, comes with a ton of baggage. After dodging questions from her family
for roughly half the movie, Janet van Dyne finally explains her history with Kang. We learn from her
that he was cast out of the multiverse by the other Kang variants and exiled specifically to
the Quantum Realm, since it exists outside of both regular space and the timestream.
Later, Kang provides some illumination on why he was banished in the first place. He claims to have
seen the end of time and how his variants destroy the multiverse -- something hinted at by another
Kang variant, He Who Remains, in "Loki" Season 1. But when Janet gains access to his mind through
his ship's neural link, she sees that this Kang has also wiped out entire timelines -- the same
thing he's accusing his brethren of doing. So what actually happened between this
particular Kang and the others? Was he a threat to them because he wanted to usurp their power?
Or could he actually be trying to save the multiverse from the other Kangs like he says?
We suspect Marvel is going to spend the rest of Phases 5 and 6 giving us the answer.
Much of the responsibility for what happens in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" can be left
squarely at Janet van Dyne's feet for not telling anyone the truth about her time in the Quantum
Realm. It becomes clear that she didn't want to tell anyone because she carries a great deal of
guilt for her role in helping Kang conquer Axia. Unfortunately, "Quantumania" has Janet withholding
so much information for so long that it becomes tiresome. There are plenty of opportunities for
her to explain the Kang situation before she does, but she just keeps repeating that there
isn't enough time. So when she does finally tell them about Kang, we have to wonder:
did she really tell them everything? Or is there more she's still hiding?
The Quantum Realm is a strange place, and she was there for a very long time. It's possible
that Kang isn't the only dangerous person she encountered. Additionally,
she saw into his brain. At one point Kang himself even asks her what exactly she
saw. It's a question we want answered too. Although the Quantum Realm is described as
being almost infinite in size, "Quantumania" only takes place in a small corner of it. The
city of Axia and the surrounding area is where Kang has built his empire, and conveniently,
it's also where all five of our protagonists land. This is a very different portrait of the
Quantum Realm from what's shown in earlier MCU movies, and it begs the question, does it all
look like the little we see in "Quantumania?" The short answer is no. By its very nature, the
Quantum Realm is fantastical and ever-changing. But "Quantumania" doesn't do a very good job of
showing us that diverse landscape. The bits we do visit seem pretty similar to our own world:
there are cities, deserts, forests, and bars. It's a lot like California!
Hopefully we'll get to return to the Quantum Realm in some future MCU project and see more of
the crazy stuff we didn't get this time around. Okay, let's talk one more time about Cassie's
mystery machine. At the end of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," Scott and Hope are able to
get Hank, Janet, and Cassie home through a portal created by Kang's multiverse drive, but to defeat
him, they have to overload the drive, thus closing their way back. For a moment, it looks like they
might be trapped in the Quantum Realm forever. But only for a moment. Using the device she shows
off at the beginning of the film, Cassie quickly reopens the portal,
allowing Hope and Scott to escape. But how? Kang and Janet say multiple times that the only way
for him to escape is by repairing the core of his multiverse drive. So how is Cassie still able to
open a gateway after the drive has seemingly been destroyed? Especially using a scanning satellite?
Even after the second portal opens, Scott and Hope completely undersell it,
as if they already knew they still had a way home. If only we understood as well as they seem to.
In his final showdown with Kang, Scott overloads the multiverse drive core
using a handful of Pym Particle disks. Kang desperately tries to
stop the device from going ballistic, but it's too late. What happens next, though,
is a lot more bewildering. Kang appears to be vaporized out of existence by the drive. Later,
in the film's mid-credits scene, the Council of Kangs claims that he's dead. But is this true?
It's unclear what exactly Scott does to the multiverse drive, and it's equally unclear
what it does to Kang. Since the device is capable of jumping across realities,
it's conceivable that Kang was simply transported somewhere else. It's also
possible that he was just shrunk down even further by the Pym Particles.
Given they spent an entire movie developing this
Kang variant in particular, it seems too soon to write him off as dead.
Midway through the credits for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is a brief glimpse at
what the other Kangs of the multiverse are up to. The scene follows three main variants -- an
imperial-looking Kang who seems to lead the meeting and resembles the comic book
character Immortus, another dressed as a Pharaoh who may be Kang's first iteration in the comics,
Rama-Tut, and a third who looks robotic, as if from a distant future.
The Kang who looks like Immortus says that the exiled variant is dead, but that he is concerned
about an unspecified "them," by which he seems to mean heroes like Scott and the Avengers. To
address this perceived threat, the lead variant has summoned the Council of Kangs in another
scene right out of the comics. There are ton of questions here,
from who these variants really are to what they'll do next. Both the exiled Kang and
He Who Remains from "Loki" Season 1 have claimed that the Kang collective will bring
about the end of all things. Considering Marvel has already announced "Avengers:
The Kang Dynasty" for 2025, it seems these, at least, are questions they are planning to answer.
After the Council of Kangs scene, "Quantumania" has one more surprise -- a post-credits tease for
"Loki" Season 2. The brief clip shows Loki and Mobius, his ally in the Time Variance Authority,
attending an exposition of some kind in what looks like the 19th century. A Kang variant named Victor
Timely, yet another version from the comics, appears onstage to philosophize about time,
but we don't see enough of the show to know what he's actually up to.
Even more intriguing is how and why Loki and Mobius are there, especially together. After
learning about Kang at the end of "Loki" Season 1, the God of Mischief seemed bent on stopping
his rise. But when he returns to the TVA at the end of that season, his whole timeline has been
rewritten, and Mobius doesn't even know who he is. That suggests that this scene may take
place midway through "Loki" Season 2. "Someone is coming, countless different
versions of a very dangerous person, and they're all set on war! We need to prepare!"
With no firm release date announced yet for "Loki" Season 2, though,
fans may just have to build their own time machine to find out what happens next!