The first trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania made it clear that Kang is up to something in the Quantum Realm, but the latest issue of Empire Magazine (via ComicBook.com) confirms that he is trapped there. We assumed that might be the case, of course, but why place the villain in those surroundings?
"We wanted to explore the Quantum Realm," director Peyton Reed explains. "It's a massive, massive world-building undertaking. It owes in equal part to electron microscope photography, '70s and '80s Heavy Metal magazine stuff, a lot of my favorite science-fiction-book cover artists, and there's a little Mœbius in there. Fantastical realism is the vibe."
Kang being stuck in the Quantum Realm might go some way in explaining why we haven't seen him on Earth-616 before now, and placing Chronopolis at the heart of time itself makes perfect sense. So, is this the Kang the Conqueror or just one of his many Variants?
That's a question we expect the threequel to answer, but Reed says this Kang is "a very different character" compared to Loki's He Who Remains.
"He's someone who has dominion over time, and he's a warrior and a strategist," the filmmaker teases. "That's interesting to me: to take the tiniest, and in some people's minds weakest, Avenger, and put them up against this absolute force of nature."
Reed would, however, conclude by suggesting this is Kang the Conqueror when he talked about the "profound" impact the threequel has on the wider MCU. "Jeff Loveness, who wrote [Quantumania], is writing The Kang Dynasty as well, so there's been a lot of discussion about the impact that this appearance of Kang the Conqueror makes. There are big things in store."
It's going to be a crazy few years ahead as Marvel Studios continues to build to the next two Avengers movies. If this Kang is the one who will serve as the MCU's new big bad, we do wonder whether Scott Lang will be able to emerge from the other side of this clash in the Quantum Realm in one piece.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set to be released in theaters on February 17, 2023.