Many fans felt Marvel’s Phase 4 was the least cohesive era of the MCU, with most of its disparate seventeen titles serving to set up new franchises and characters without relating them to each other. Despite Black Widow’s opening into Hawkeye and WandaVision setting up Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, the connecting thread of a larger story that made the MCU so engaging in the Infinity Saga was lacking.
Phase 5 looks to be returning the MCU to a larger, interconnected narrative by setting Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man against Jonathan Majors’ multiverse-tyrant Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which was released this week.
Majors made his debut in 2021’s Disney+ series Loki as a variant of Kang, He Who Remains, who foretold the carnage that would occur should the other variants thrive. Kang the Conqueror is the central antagonist of Ant-Man 3, exiled by the other Kangs for attempting to wipe them all out, erasing entire realities in the process. This version of Kang is ultimately defeated circa the end of Quantumania, but two post-credit scenes have continued to cause stir.
The first scene features a massive gathering of Kangs – known as the Council of Kangs in the comics – overseen by three Kang variants, comic counterparts Rama-Tut, the Scarlet Centurion, and Immortus. They discuss how Ant-Man’s defeat of the Conqueror has made it clear that the Avengers may be an obstacle in their plans to rule over the multiverse. The introduction of Rama-Tut has been particularly compelling for fans. The character is a recognizable enemy of the Fantastic Four, who will make their MCU debut right before Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
The second post-credits scene focuses on Kang’s iteration Victor Timely, who is extolling the mechanics of time to an audience in 1920s America. The scene cuts to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, who is watching in terror as Timely speaks, making clear that Kang will again take center stage on the show.
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