The expected start of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is getting thinner and thinner, considering that in a month we will be able to enjoy Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania, a new chapter in the Marvel franchise that will finally bring the long-awaited villain of this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Kang the Conqueror, to the big screen. As we have known for some time, the theater of this adventure will be that Quantum Realm that appeared for the first time in Ant-Man and the Wasp, part of the infamous multiverse and apparently the domain of Kang (Jonathan Mayor). However, the detail does not escape that Kang seems more like an exile than a ruler, to the point that one wonders if we will discover because Kang is a prisoner of the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania.
In the final trailer of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania, we clearly hear Kang confessing to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) that he has wasted too much time, referring to his confinement within the Quantum Realm. A deprivation that seems to be a point of contact with Scott, who regrets the time not spent with his daughter Cassie, both for his time in prison and for the five years lost following the snap of Thanos’ fingers in Avengers: Infinity War. In Kang’s case, however, it seems that this condition is linked to a defeat, following which he was imprisoned in the Quantum Realm.
Because in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania Is Kang a prisoner in the Quantum Realm?
Considering that Kang has been identified as the villain of this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one wonders who could be so powerful as to have managed to trap Kang in the Quantum Realm. The answer, we hope, will be presented in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummaniabut that doesn’t stop us from embarking on some speculation about it.
Janet Van Dyne: Knowing Kang in the Quantum Realm
The first character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to have direct knowledge of the Quantum Realm was Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfiffer)who has lived within this dimension of the multiverse for a good 30 years, as we discovered in Ant-Man and the Wasp. As a result of a failed mission in 1987 while Janet was a SHIELD agent with her husband Henry Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), aka the first Ant-Man, Janet lost control of her equipment becoming subatomic and ended up in the Quantum Realm, from which she was only rescued thirty years later. During this exile, it seems hard to believe she never found out about Kang’s existence, a suspicion that is confirmed by seeing her reaction when she, as shown in trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummaniadiscovers that Cassie has created a contact bridge to the Quantum Realm.
Other scenes in the trailers not only show a deep knowledge of this universe, but also that Janet has some familiarity with Kang, or at least with his power, which may lead us to think that Janet played a role in Kang’s imprisonment in the Kingdom. Quantum. Probably, Kang tried to convince Janet to collaborate with him in an attempt to leave his prison, as he tries to do with Scott Lang, but the woman may have later discovered his true nature and therefore decided to leave him to his fate in the moment in which she was saved by Scott and Hope.
The Avengers from another universe
Theory that is based on a sentence spoken by Kang, shown by Marvel Studios during a presentation of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania at a convention, and not later featured in trailers. As much as one can think of one of Marvel Studios’ famous misdirections, this one little reference to the Avengers from another dimension, which Kang claims to have defeated, could indicate that prior to his victory Nathaniel Richards was imprisoned in the Quantum Realm, where he then consumed his revenge against these Avengers. At the moment, this remains the more complicated theory, considering that the scene may not make it into the final cut of the film, thus making this conjecture totally useless.
If confirmed, however, it would be an interesting twist when we think about how a host of Avengers from different dimensions could take the field against Kang in Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Not forgetting that a movie like Avengers: Secret Wars could make this expedient even more solid, referring to the Secret Wars Hickman’s papers thus showing different variations of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
TVA: Imprison an insane variant
If we talk about Kang the Conqueror, we cannot help but remember that this character has lived innumerable existences, and has even created a Council of Kang, composed of all his versions of the multiverse. The Council of Kang was mentioned in the final episode of Loki, a knowledge that will certainly not have escaped the TVAthe Time Variant Authoriy tasked with preventing the Sacred Timeline from being compromised by over-enthusiastic variants or time-travellers.
Given Kang’s dangerousness and being a variant of the Remnant, the ultimate defender of the Sacred Timeline and founder of the TVA, it’s safe to assume that his capture by the agency led to his imprisonment in the Quantum Realm. Variants are usually sent into the Void, but as we saw in Loki from this holding area it is also easy to access the Citadel, the refuge of the One Who Remains. Allowing Kang to meet this variant of hers and to be able to find an escape route would have been unacceptable, hence the exile to the Quantum Realm.
Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four
The arrival of the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the most anticipated future chapters of the franchise, and we cannot ignore how the Richards family is particularly close to Kang. Not only is the character a distant descendant of Reed Richards, but it is precisely with the F4 that he has experienced the most lethal clashes, as well as making his debut in the Marvel Universe in his incarnation of the pharaoh Rama-Tut. Considering that the debut of the Fantastic Family is expected in Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, creating a bond between Kang and the Richards now might seem forced, however it would be a big suggestion to discover that Kang actually clashed with the Richards in the past , eventually being defeated and exiled to the Quantum Realm.
The one who stays
Potentially, the most credible of Kang’s captors in the Quantum Realm. In the final episode of the first season of Lokilet’s get to know this variant by Nathaniel Richards, who tells how the Sacred Timeline took great risks when Kang tried to impose his power on the Multiverse. From the Council of Kang to the War of the Multiversethese events showed the danger of Kang the Conqueror, but from these conflicts the One Who Remains finally emerged as the winner, who therefore created the TVA to prevent the recurrence of similar dangers.
It does not escape as speaking with Loki and Sylvie, the One Who Remains warns of the danger Kang poses, warning them of how his death could allow Kang to regain power again. This detail could be an indication of how it was precisely He Who Remains who exiled his dangerous variant to the Quantum Realm, even if the same creator of the TVA does not fail to foresee Kang’s escape from the Quantum Realm, an event which, in the mechanics of the multiverse and time travel, it can be both caused by his death and be the trigger of the infamous War of the Multiverse, which could be the central element of the future Avengers: Kang Dynasty.
Why can’t Kang escape the Quantum Realm?
Net of the reason why Kang is a prisoner of the Quantum Realm, it remains to be clarified how it is possible that a being of his power has not managed to escape earlier from his captivity. In the trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the need for Kang the Conqueror to be helped by Scott Lang is evident, going so far as to tempt him with a Faustian pact: to help him in exchange for a chance to make up for lost time.
What could be why Kang needs Scott Lang? Scott manages to reach the Quantum Realm via Pym particle technology, exactly as Janet did years earlier, a detail that Kang probably knows. While he has 31st-century technology at his disposal, it’s possible that this invention of Pym’s is the only knowledge Kang lacks and the only one that could free him from his captivity.
However, in a moment of the trailer we hear Kang tell Scott that he will have to recover something that the villain badly needs. Given that Kang knows Ant-Man’s history well, including his past as a thief, this could mean that Scott is not a prisoner like Kang of the Quantum Realm, but that Jonathan Mayor’s character is forced to remain in this reality, needing to something that could break this constraint. And it will be up to Scott to recover it, a mission that could introduce particularly powerful artifacts from the paper dimension of the House of Ideas into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as the Zodiac Key or the Absolute Nullifier (again, a reference to the Fantastic Four).
