The Loki Season 2 Finale Brushes Off Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania
Warning: This article contains spoilers for all time, always for the season 2 finale of "Loki."
Of all the shocking twists and turns thrown at viewers during the season finale (and dare I say series finale?) of "Loki," few could've been as surprising as the one that the writers dropped in the waning moments of the hour. After six relentless episodes filled with timelines collapsing and multiverse-threatening chaos, the ending snaps into place when Loki heroically sacrifices himself and finds true fulfillment as the new keeper of the timelines. This allows the rest of the show's ensemble cast of characters to settle into a new status quo, one where the Time Variance Authority no longer needs to prune branches with extreme prejudice and those who wish to live their lives on the sacred timeline are now free to do so. But before Mobius (Owen Wilson) makes his fateful choice, we're treated to one brief moment addressing the ongoing concern of Kang (Jonathan Majors) variants cropping up and causing trouble.
In the process, "Loki" directly references the events of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ... just not in the way you'd expect it to.
Show of hands: Who thought that the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first real acknowledgment of the multiverse-shaking shenanigans of "Quantumania" would brush it off like it was no big deal in the first place? Then again, those who had the misfortune of watching the movie (seriously, as /Film's Jeff Ewing reviewed at the time, it's not great) will remember how bizarre it was to introduce most audiences to their next Thanos-sized threat in a movie where he was beaten so soundly by a couple of Ant-people. Either way, "Loki" went there and left us with a number of questions to mull over.
'A ruckus on 616'
Look, if you're going to be a supervillain and cause all kinds of mischief, at least live your life in such a way that you manage to get on the TVA's radar. That's the least you could do! Well, apparently all Kang the Conqueror could muster was a brief report filed by Mobius detailing how he "caused a little bit of a ruckus on 616 adjacent realm," which is undoubtedly meant as a nod to all the events in the Quantum Realm in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." Amusingly enough, Mobius and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) appear completely unconcerned by any of it. Mobius casually alludes to how "they handled it," sparing the TVA from needing to get involved. The TVA is the same place that used Thanos' all-important Infinity Stones as paperweights, I get it, but what an ignominious legacy for the MCU's first big-screen introduction to Kang, eh?
For those hoping that our brief glimpse of that report might reveal some additional details, unfortunately, the framing of this scene (shot in one take) doesn't allow for the clearest look at the file. If you look closely, you can just make out that Kang's name is listed as "Unknown," while Mobius apparently attributed "Kang the Conqueror" as his alias. The big images to the right appear to be stills of Kang in his mask shooting energy out of his hands (obviously Mobius either got his hands on a copy of "Quantumania" or he just did his best imitation of a film journalist and snagged some screen-grabs from Disney+) along with that distinctively circular time-ship he used to travel around. The words "Scott Lang" and "Ant-Man" are also barely visible in the text.
But we have bigger questions, like is the TVA now pivoting to variant-hunting?
The TVA's new glorious purpose
Adapt or die. Who knew that would apply to a realm beyond time and space? But that's how the end of the finale positions the TVA moving forward. Now that He Who Remains is out of the picture and Loki seems to have taken his place at the end of time, the ripple effects extend all the way to the TVA needing to find a new purpose. As much of the season emphasized, pruning timelines and wiping out countless lives is no longer on the table. Instead, with Kang's variants still out there and at risk of posing an even greater threat (or are they?), all indications suggest that the army of time-cops are about to make it their new mission to hunt down these new targets at all costs.
While the question of a potential season 3 remains unanswered, it's harder to believe that we've seen the last of the TVA in the MCU moving forward tbh. So far, this unimaginably powerful organization has stayed in the shadows, quietly monitoring the timeline with no one the wiser. But as the franchise leans further and further into the multiverse, isn't it about time that our frequently timeline-interfering Avengers are finally made aware of the same existential knowledge that Loki found out for himself back in season 1? Heck, fans seem keen on seeing this version of Loki cross over to the main 616 timeline again and reunite with several characters (namely Chris Hemsworth's Thor), so it would seem that the idea of the TVA remaining a secret lives on borrowed time.
Whatever the case may be, it's likely that the events of "Loki" will reverberate throughout the MCU.