Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Ending Explained: The Start of a New Dynasty

The release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened up a lot of opportunities in the storyline of the MCU, especially because this was where Kang the Conqueror was officially introduced. Of course, we know that there is an upcoming Avengers movie that is going to be about Kang, and that means that he is an incredibly important character in the future of the MCU.

But before we get to that point, it is important to take note that this movie is about Ant-Man and the rest of the Ant-Family, and that’s why we have to keep our focus on those characters while also giving a bit of the spotlight to Kang. So, with that said, let’s look at what happened in Quantumania and how the movie ended so that we can get a good idea of what’s next in store for the Ant-Family and the rest of the MCU.

The True Quantum Realm

There is no doubt that the Quantum Realm has played an important part in the storyline of the MCU. Of course, its importance was first established in the Ant-Man storyline, especially in Ant-Man and the Wasp, when they were able to get to the Quantum Realm to rescue Janet Van Dyne. It was also in the post-credit scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp that we were able to see the event responsible for saving the MCU from Thanos’ snap.

That’s because the Quantum Realm exists in a place well outside the limits of time and space, which was why the Avengers were able to use Pym particles to travel in time through the Quantum Realm. But while the Quantum Realm has been very important to the MCU in recent years, we are yet to see what it truly is and what lies inside this mysterious place that’s outside the confines of time and space.

Of course, the Quantum Realm became an even more important topic in Quantumania due to how it acts as the setting of the entire storyline. The story starts with Scott Lang having troubles with his daughter, Cassie, who was detained for trying to protect the homeless people that were displaced during the events of Blip. And this topic was taken to the Ant-Family dinner, where Scott found out that Cassie had been working with Hank on a secret project.

The entire family went down to Hank’s lab, where they found out that he had been working on an intelligent ant colony that managed to produce its own technology. But the real story was related to Cassie and the tech that she developed. She was able to find a way to communicate with the Quantum Realm without getting there, as she found a way to send a signal there so that they could see what was going on in this mysterious realm.

But Janet reacted to this by immediately shutting Cassie’s machine down without any explanation. As someone who spent three decades in the Quantum Realm, Janet knew the dangers that came with that place, which was why she decided to keep the things that she knew about it a secret from her own family.

Cassie’s machine, however, started malfunctioning and sucked all of the members of the Ant-Family into the Quantum Realm. This included the things that were in Hank’s lab, as the smart ant colony also ended up getting transported into the Quantum Realm due to this accident.

Getting To Know The Quantum Realm

Due to the events that happened in Hank’s lab, Scott and Cassie were separated from Hope and her parents. They were surprised to see that this version of the Quantum Realm was entirely different from the one they were familiar with, as it was clear they were now deeper in it compared to the last time. In that regard, this was the real Quantum Realm that had sentient life and humanoid species.

Scot and Cassie met a few people that introduced themselves as freedom fighters that fought against a man called the Conqueror. They had to drink a mysterious ooze that allowed them to communicate with the people of the Quantum Realm. These people were led by a strong woman named Jentorra.

Meanwhile, Hope’s crew was in a better position due to Janet’s experience in the Quantum Realm. Janet helped them get a ride to a city, where she met a man named Krylar, who was obviously her former lover while she was in this mysterious world. The conversation with Krylar allowed Hope to learn that the Conqueror already knows about their presence in the Quantum Realm. This meeting turned a violent page as Hope, Hank, and Janet needed to escape on a ship to get to where they thought Scott and Cassie would be.

Scott and Cassie, meanwhile, were attacked by the Conqueror’s forces. The army wiped out the defenses of the freedom fighters while taking some of them into custody. Meanwhile, Scott met a familiar face in the form of Darren Cross, who we met back in the events of the first Ant-Man movie. 

However, he had now become a deformed man with a gigantic head and small limbs due to the effects of the incident with Scott back in the first movie. He got lost in the Quantum Realm, where Kang turned him into the Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing (MODOK). MODOK also revealed that he was the one that picked up Cassie’s signal and sent the Ant-Family to the Quantum Realm.

Kang Is Introduced

While Hope’s group was on their way to where they needed to be, that was when she told the story of how she met Kang years ago. At first, she saw him as a friend that she had something in common with because they were both stranded in a mysterious place they knew little to nothing about. Janet realized that Kang’s ship had technology that was centuries ahead of what Earth could produce. On top of that, it had the ability to send them to any timeline.

That was what convinced Janet to work with Kang so that they could fix the power core that the ship needed. When the core was fixed, Janet touched the ship neurologically connected to Kang. That was when she saw the things the ship had seen in the past, as Kang was responsible for destroying multiple timelines, worlds, and universes. She found out that he was a dangerous man, which was why she used her Wasp suit to escape with the power core.

Kang revealed that he was never someone who got lost in time. Instead, he was someone who got exiled to a place outside of time and space. Those who exiled him were the ones responsible for sabotaging his ship and his power core.

But while she escaped with the core, Janet had already given Kang too much when he gained access to the suit that was contained within his ship. The suit had weapons and capabilities far ahead of any suit any MCU genius could produce, which made Janet believe that she couldn’t beat Kang. Instead, she used her Pym discs to enlarge the power core to the point that it would be useless to Kang and his ship.

After that, Janet worked with the rest of the citizens of the Quantum Realm to resist Kang, who had become too powerful due to his suit. But the one thing that Kang wanted was Janet’s access to Pym particles, which were the only ones that could shrink the power core down to its regular size.

After MODOK captured Scott and Cassie, he introduced them to his master, Kang, who wanted Scott for a very specific purpose. Kang wanted Scott to use his Pym discs to reduce the power core back to size and used Cassie as a bargaining chip. As such, Scott had no choice but to agree to the terms offered by the Conqueror.

Scott got to the center of the core, where he had to deal with a probability storm that created multiple versions of himself. Using these versions, he was able to get to the core. Hope arrived in time to help him as well, as they both shrank the power core back to its regular size.

Kang did not agree to the terms because he took the power core without even giving Cassie back. He also took Janet with him as he wanted her to become the witness to his plans. But while the heroes lost that round, the good news was that Hank found his ants, which were incredibly large due to the fact that they didn’t shrink to tiny sizes when they were transported to the Quantum Realm. Hank found out that these ants had arrived at the Quantum Realm a thousand years before them and that they had established a civilization and an army that could rival Kang’s own army.

How Was Kang Defeated?

Even though Cassie was still in Kang’s tower, she found a way to escape from the guards that were keeping her in check. She used the opportunity to free Jentorra, who told her that they were going to have to release a message that could rally all of the other freedom fighters to their cause.

Meanwhile, Kang showed Janet what he had been planning the entire time as he wanted to take the army that he built in the Quantum Realm to kill the ones responsible for exiling him. We are talking about the different variants of Kang. Kang also said that he had to kill them because the different variants of Kang were going to pose a danger to Ant-Family and the rest of the MCU.

When Kang sent out a message addressed to his troops, Cassie intercepted it and used it as a way to send a message to the other freedom fighters. She told them to get to the tower so that they could fight together. Kang sent out MODOK to kill Cassie.

Scott and the Ant-Family also arrived in time to try to stop Kang from launching his tower using the power core. He used his suit to grow himself to his full size so that he could fend off Kang’s army. While he struggled in that regard, the freedom fighters arrived in time to help Scott.

Cassie successfully defeated MODOK by enlarging herself. She told Darren to stop being a dick, as that seemed to be what changed his outlook on life. Meanwhile, Scott and Hope successfully destroyed the mechanism that was meant to send Kang and his army out of the Quantum Realm and back to where all of the other Kang variants were.

Angry and tired of their meddling, Kang took it upon himself to enter the battlefield and kill a lot of freedom fighters who were forced to retreat. While the Ant-Family tried to stop Kang, he was simply too strong due to his technology.

Hank arrived in time with his ants. The gigantic ant army overwhelmed the battlefield and defeated Kang’s army. While Kang tried to defend himself, Darren arrived in time to sacrifice himself so that the ants could damage Kang’s defenses and seemingly kill him.

Janet told the group that she found a way that could get them out of the Quantum Realm using Kang’s power core. Just after Hank, Janet, Hope, and Cassie returned to their world, Kang returned to show that he survived the attack of the ants. He overwhelmed Scott in a battle that forced Ant-Man to use his Pym discs to destroy the power core.

Kang tried to escape while the portal to the outside world was still open, but Hope returned to prevent him from escaping. And when Kang tried to stop the Pym discs from destroying the core, he blew up together with it as the Conqueror was seemingly done for good.

Cassie found a way to lock on to the signals of both Scott and Hope as they were taken back to the outside world. Meanwhile, Scott returned to his usual life as he tried to shake off the feeling that Kang’s warning had some truth behind it. Nevertheless, he just thought that he finally decided to pay no mind to Kang’s warning.

How The Post-Credits Scene Set Up The MCU’s Future

During the mid-credit scene of Quantumania, we were taken to a universe that seemed to be outside the confines of time and space because several Kang variants existed there. These variants all had different costumes, but it was clear that they all saw themselves as godlike beings.

One of the Kangs said he was happy that the “exiled one” was already dead. Despite the fact that the Kang in Quantumania was already dead, there were a lot of other Kangs that were shown. That’s because the Kangs were concerned about the fact that more and more people were now aware of the existence of the multiverse.

That was what prompted the Kang variants to summon all of the other Kangs that existed in different universes in the greater multiverse. It was clear that the concern regarding the knowledge of the people of the MCU regarding the multiverse was too important to the Kangs that they needed to meet up to discuss what they needed to do to address this issue.

This sets up the foundation of the upcoming Avengers: Kang Dynasty movie, which won’t be about the Kang that we saw in Quantumania but will be about all of the other variants of the character. Of course, one Kang was already quite dangerous. And we can only imagine what kind of threat the other Kangs will pose to the multiverse in the upcoming Kang Dynasty movie.

Meanwhile, in the second post-credit scene, we saw Loki and Mobius back in time in what seemed to be the 19th century as they watched a show. On stage was another Kang variant that Loki believed could be “him.” This sets up the events of season 2 of the Loki series on Disney+.

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