Ant-Man 3 Director Just Revealed The Identities Of The [REDACTED] From Mid-Credits Scene
This article contains spoilers for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania."
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is the third Ant-Man-centric film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and finds Scott Lang (the ageless Paul Rudd) living his life as a post-Blip Avenger. Much of the film takes place against a virtual backdrop in the Quantum Realm after Scott learns his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has been experimenting with a device that can help establish contact with the mysterious micro-region. Before they know it, Scott, Cassie, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) have all been pulled into the Quantum Realm, where the group must face Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), the most powerful, terrifying super-villain they've yet to meet.
In the film's glaringly confusing mid-credits scene, a massive cluster of Kang variants are shown being led by three Kang iterations that form what Marvel comic book readers will no doubt recognize as the Council of Kangs. Thankfully, "Quantumania" director Peyton Reed has since confirmed the identities of these specific variants in the MCU.
'Just give a tiny taste of the potential'
Kang, who made his MCU debut on the Disney+ series "Loki," is a complex, fascinating villain known for his mastery of time travel and uncanny ability to conquer worlds. He's a formidable foe to the heroes of the Marvel Comics universe, and is already being hyped as the MCU's next Thanos-level threat — which make sense, as we now know there to be an infinite (?) number of Kangs in the multiverse.
Speaking to ET Online (via Murphy's Multiverse), Peyton Reed explained the reasoning behind the mid-credits scene in "Quantumania," in the process revealing the identities of the aforementioned three Kangs:
"We knew we wanted to sort of just give a tiny taste of the potential of what some of these Kang variants are and brief nods to [Pharaoh] Rama-Tut, [Scarlet] Centurion, [and] Immortus."
Keep in mind, these Kangs might not be identical to their comic book counterparts. For example, Reed described the MCU's Rama-Tut as being a "very strange sort of bionic variant" of the character from the comics.
There's a chance we'll never see them again
Interestingly, it's possible these specific versions of Kang will never show up in the MCU again. Peyton Reed teased as much, telling ET Online they might not be the "prime" variants of Kang that appear in future movies. "Maybe they're variants of those versions," he added.
Ultimately, Reed said the goal of this mid-credits scene was to begin to explore the "political aspect of how the Kangs relate to each other," which he believed has strong potential for the MCU's Phase Five. Judging from his statement, we have a lot more to look forward to from Jonathan Majors' character(s).
We're yet to hear if Marvel Studios plans to make a fourth "Ant-Man" film ... but at least we know it's not the end for Kang the Conqueror. We do know that a "Fantastic Four" film is in the making, so perhaps some variant of Kang will face off with Marvel's First Family in the movie (as he's done before in the comics). Failing that, of course, there's still "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" to look forward to in 2025!
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is now playing in theaters.