Loki season 2 finale’s Ant-Man 3 reference might have just set up Avengers: The Kang Dynasty
Earth-616, did you say?
Well, the Loki season 2 finale featured a lot of revelations about the past, present, and future of the God of Mischief. But thrown in with all of the emotional arcs being woven together was a very intriguing reference to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Before going any further, we’re getting into big spoilers for Loki season 2 episode 6 below, so make sure you’ve seen 'Glorious Purpose' before reading on.
After Loki (Tom Hiddleston) makes the ultimate sacrifice to take He Who Remains' place and hold together the branched timelines, the show skips ahead. In a time simply referred to as "after", we’re back at the TVA with Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku).
The pair are dealing with the consequences of Loki’s choice, and that includes working out exactly what is going on with those He Who Remains variants. "Do any of them know that we exist yet?" B-15 asks Mobius. Handing her a case file, he says: "Nope. I guess one of them caused a little bit of a ruckus on 616 adjacent realm, but they handled it so we’re all good for now."
This is clearly a reference to the events of Ant-Man 3 because Earth-616 is the Marvel timeline we know and love. That film sees Scott Lang and his family end up in the Quantum Realm where they encounter Kang, who has been exiled by his variants out of fear.
As Mobius mentions, they do manage to subdue him by throwing him into a power core, but it's interesting to hear this being on the TVA's radar. What’s more, if you zoom in on the screen here too, you can see some case file details including pictures of Kang in the Quantum Realm.
All in all, it's a really neat Easter egg that could actually have huge implications going forward as we get closer to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. In the Ant-Man 3 post-credits scene, we met the Council of Kangs, featuring Pharaoh-themed Rama-tut and Immortus as they discussed the fate of Kang the Conqueror.
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They referred to the growing, posing threat of others (Marvel's heroes) to the multiverse. "If we let them, they’ll destroy everything," the leader declares before the Colosseum of Kangs showed their support for all-out war.
As one Redditor points out, Mobius and B-15’s conversation could imply that the Council of Kangs may have sensed something about the TVA. "When Immortus refers to the Multiverse being 'touched' in Quantumania, could that be about not just Ant-Man defeating the Conqueror, but also the TVA agents beginning to take on the other Kang variants?” they theorized.
"As in the Council of Kangs may not realize it's the TVA yet (since Mobius said they don't know they exist yet), but the Kang crew now knows something is going on, and are in the beginnings of organizing and finding out?"
The viewer continued: "Perhaps that might be how the big multiversal war starts? With the Council of Kangs fighting the TVA, and the TVA pulling their strings of time to assume enough force to combat them and likely also trying to protect Tree God Loki from being attacked."
It’s an interesting theory, and we’d bet that the Loki season 2 finale will have a huge impact on the MCU going forward. However, with relatively few details out there about the coming Avengers movies at the moment, we'll just have to wait and see just how much this will be.
In the meantime, check out our Loki season 2 guides on:
- Loki season 2 review
- When does Loki season 2 take place on the Marvel timeline?
- Loki season 1 recap
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- Marvel phase 5
- Upcoming Marvel movies and shows
- Victor Timely comic book history explained
- Judge Renslayer comic book history explained
- Sylvie comic book history explained
- What is time-slipping?
- All the differences between comic book Loki and show Loki
- What is the Zaniac in Marvel Comics?
- Balder the Brave comic book origins explained
I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at 12DOVE, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.