As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Along with invoking the Quantum Realm, the subtitle has the hero's name hidden in it (QuANTuMANia), and once the trailer had scenes of Self-Duplication, it made even more sense.
- Confirmed with the end credits because by the end of it, it focuses on the letters ANTMAN in the subtitle of Quantumania before panning out and forming the rest of the subtitle and then “Ant-Man and The Wasp”.
- The owner of the coffee shop Scott frequents incorrectly refers to Scott as “Spider-Man”. At first glance, it’s a joke perfectly in tone with the Ant-Man franchise. However, if one looks deeper, it’s another example of how Lang and Parker are Foils to each other. Scott has quickly garnered a huge amount of fame, whereas fame (or infamy) has ruined Peter's life. Spider-Man has become a polarising figure within the superhero community after being accused of murder, whereas Ant-Man is unanimously celebrated and praised for stopping Thanos's conquest. It's also a nice Call-Back to when Sam Wilson was asking a journalist about the whereabouts of Scott during the first movie, who responds by saying that there's a guy who "jumps, swings, and crawls up the walls".
- This example
, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly:Devan Coggan: You talked about how you've been at Marvel for 23 years. It's been about 15 years since Iron Man, and Quantumania is movie No. 31.
Kevin Feige: 31. Which is so weird because Baskin Robbins. They have 31 on everything. Weird, right? - While Darren Cross's abrupt Heel–Face Turn is Played for Laughs, a big part of it does happen to make sense. In the first movie it is said that exposure to the Pym Particles without a protective helmet does bad things to your mental state and Hope even says at one point after Darren has announced his intentions of selling the suits to HYDRA, "This is not who you are, it’s the particles altering your brain chemistry." So it could be said that Darren was fundamentally a good if too ambitious for his own good person before the Pym Particles affected him, so it does make some sense that losing to Cassie, followed by Cassie simply telling him that it isn't too late to change could convince him to turn against Kang.
- It’s possible the massive beating he got from a giant Cassie caused severe brain damage, as evidenced by his dying words where he believed he and Scott were like brothers despite history saying otherwise. And this brain damage meant he would have done anything any outside source told him to do, which in this case is “not being a dick”.
- One of the first things said by Janet following her, Hope and Hank getting stranded in the Quantum Realm is a line very similar to a Deleted Scene from Ant-Man and the Wasp where Janet reveals that there are worlds upon worlds and entire civilizations living inside the Quantum Realm. In light of this movie, it makes more sense for that scene to have been cut as it furthers Janet's characterization of not wanting to tell Hope and Hank anything deeper about her time in the Quantum Realm.
- Fridge Heartwarming, in the fact that Scott went from talking about how no one knows Ant-Man and the kids in the diner not wanting a picture with him in Avengers: Endgame to high-fiving a little kid with an Ant-Man backpack.
- The cake tasting terrible as the last scene in the movie proper before The Stinger is fitting. The last parts of the movie after Scott gets back, show life being not as perfect as in his opening monologue before realizing that maybe Kang was right before brushing it off to go back to his happy life, briefly showing that maybe all will not be well in Scott's life and the lives of the rest of the planet.
- Fridge Heartwarming, with that cafe owner, mistaking Scott for Spider-Man. It shows that even with all J. Jonah Jameson's media frenzy, there are still people out there who believe in Spider-Man.
- Janet’s advice to Hope being “Don’t look at them” when she starts duplicating in the multiversal regulator is pretty good advice as it makes her and her doubles focus on the goal ahead of them, thereby limiting the choices she could possibly make.
- Among the endlessly duplicated Scotts, there's only a single one of them shown who does not wear the suit and still works at Baskin-Robbins. This is because there is a very, very low possibility for Scott to have ended in the Quantum Realm without having ever met Pym in the first place, which is represented by this single Scott among an endless multitude of suit-wearing Scotts.
- Cassie getting less strained than Scott after becoming big can be likely due to previously testing the suit with the Pyms, but there's also the fact that she's far younger than her father when he become Giant-Man, and thus, she can recover faster in her late teens than her father in his forties.
- Her overall mass may also play a role. A grown man obviously has more mass than a young woman and so, would have to deal with more strain when giant.
- Cassie and Scott getting lightheaded in their giant forms makes sense because they retracted their helmets, meaning their life-support systems aren't providing them with the proper-sized air molecules to help them breathe.
- The reveal that Hope is working to make Pym Particles more accessible for public use explains how Clint Barton was able to make arrows that can shrink and expand his targets in Hawkeye. Furthermore, the fact that Hank is more accepting of Scott and Cassie as heroes means he's likely much more accepting of letting former Avengers use his tech for the good of the world.
- Some people are disappointed of the way Kang was handled in the movie. Each Kang has a different personality, intelligence, and power level. In fact, we had a comedic and eccentric Kang back in the Loki finale who was a lot weaker than the others. The most dangerous Kang will likely appear in the Secret Wars movie.
- Not to mention Kang's main abilities are time control and high tech from the 31st century. Because he was stranded in a dimension that isn’t his time nor the concept of time exist (at least, not in the same way), it greatly weakens this Variant of Kang, which is why the Quantum Realm was chosen as his prison.
- Darren's M.O.D.O.K. suit has a heart monitor. Considering how his bodily proportions were horribly distorted, it'd be more surprising if his internal organs weren't wrecked as well.
- Also, the brain consumes more energy than the others organs (about a 20% of the total energy is destined to the brain), meaning that, with a head and a heart that are respectively bigger and smaller than they normally are, Darren's heart is likely strained due to overworking to feed his oversized brain.
- This Kang claims that he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist, the only one who can stop the endless tide of war his variants will bring, by committing genocide on the scale of trillions. He Who Remains claimed the exact same thing, with almost the exact same methods. It seems that every Kang sees himself as the Only Sane Man, the Well-Intentioned Extremist who has to save the multiverse from himself.
- Why does Kang need Scott to retrieve the core for him when in theory he could use the particles in order to get them once he has them? Simple, while Scott was able to direct all of his alternate selfs once he focuses on Cassie, there is no way Kang would have been able to do the same thing. The Kangs would not doubt end up fighting each other instead.
- It also explains why Kang never tried to replicate the Pym particles himself, despite being centuries more technologically advanced.
- How come Kang's instant death beams don't kill the Langs or Pyms? The advanced ants have technology that can stand up to Kang's, so they probably gave the heroes some last-minute upgrades to their suits before the final battle.
- Why does Kang refuse to honor his end of his deal with Scott after Scott gets what he wants for him?
- Because he was on the receiving end of a similar deal with Janet when he first became stranded in the Quantum Realm. Because of his experiences with that, Kang likely did the same thing to Scott because 1): he assumes that Scott would try the same thing with him, and 2): reneging on their deal would be hurting Janet as well, whom Kang already wants to enact revenge on by any means.
- Alternatively, Kang didn't, strictly speaking, betray Scott at all; he never explicitly promised to let Scott or Cassie go free if Scott retrieved the power core, he just spelled out what he'd do if Scott refused, with the implication that Cassie would be unharmed if Scott agreed; contrary to what Scott assumed, the deal was never for Cassie's freedom or Scott's own well-being. Indeed, after Kang has what he wants, Cassie is only shown being herded around Kang's base, her life in no evident danger, and he only gives the order to kill her when she hijacks his Rousing Speech to incite the people of the Quantum Realm to attack. As far as Kang was concerned, he upheld the deal as he saw it until Cassie openly made herself his enemy, which makes Scott's anger at the Conqueror "breaking his word" entirely a matter of perspective.
- On a similar note, Kang may have interpreted Scott's refusal to immediately hand over the power core as an act of defiance and a possible sign that Scott was the one backing out of their deal, which would fit in with Kang's already demonstrated Moral Myopia (he considered Janet stealing the power core in the first place to be a betrayal, not caring that it was because she saw his true nature).
- During his attack on Kang's citadel in the climax, Scott roars at Kang for lying to him, saying that "our word is our bond! Without that, we're nothing!". Except... Kang didn't lie once in the entire movie; when Janet gets a look into his mind, he's honest, if only from his own perspective, about his intentions, and even makes a seemingly sincere offer to spare her timeline in gratitude for her help. According to Janet, Kang had claimed to be a traveler who crashed in the Quantum Realm, but even that can be chalked up to metaphorical truth (he's certainly traveled far and wide and he did crash, just not accidentally), as noted above, Kang's deal with Scott never explicitly promised Cassie's release or Scott's own safety, despite Scott assuming that was the case, and he's perfectly honest with Janet about his plans and motives (if only, again, from his own perspective). Kang might deceive people, either through misleading words or not correcting their assumptions, and he might filter his truths through his vengeful and megalomaniacal personality, but, if only as far as Kang himself is concerned, he's never outright dishonest, which might lend credence to his claims of being a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- On a related note, a couple of moments in the film imply that doubting Kang's word or calling him a liar is a Berserk Button for the Conqueror; Kang doesn't actually attack Scott to take the power core until Scott demands to see Cassie, implying that he doesn't trust that Kang wouldn't harm her, and during the climax, Kang is much more openly aggressive and belligerent towards Scott after Scott, as Giant-Man, yelled out for all to hear that Kang was a liar. This would also reflect Kang's narcissism; someone as insignificant as Scott having the gall to doubt his word in front of Kang's entire army would really offend Kang's ego, especially if Kang considers himself an honest man.
- Darren considering Scott a brother may come a little out of left field, but it actually makes sense. He was Hank Pym's protegee and he was angered by the fact Hank chose to share the Ant-Man technology with Scott and not him. He may have seen himself and Scott as Hank's surrogate sons.
- Literally any scene in the Quantum Realm becomes this when you remember what we now know is lurking down there somewhere. At any given moment, our heroes could be in danger of accidentally unleashing a literal Zombie Apocalypse on their world if it should find them.
- Or worse, Kang finds the source and weaponizes it.
- Or worse yet, what if the zombie virus is too dangerous for even Kang to control? After all, it's a little weird that Kang didn't try to stop zombie Janet in the zombieverse. Maybe he couldn't stop it.
- Alternatively, he simply wasn't there in the zombieverse. For all we know, the Council Of Kangs could have found no reason to exile Kang-89521 to the Quantum Realm.
- Darren Cross's survival is pretty frightening in it of itself, especially when you think back to how much he hated Scott, Hank and Hope in the first movie for being obstacles in his path. Given what he's become now, he's likely become even more deranged and is more eager to destroy them than he ever was before.
- In spite of Kang's "death" he does tell Scott "I know how it all ends", which is reminiscent of He Who Remains' "See ya soon" in Loki (2021) right before Sylvie kills him, lending special credence that this was all his plan.
- Though Kang ends up losing to Scott and Hope (not especially powerful heroes), it is partly because the fight occurs in the Quantum Realm where time is irrelevant. Imagine what he could have done to them if he had his full powers, especially considering he still almost killed Scott without them, requiring Hope's Big Damn Heroes moment.
- The revelation that the Quantum Realm has entire civilizations living in it makes the prospect of What If...Zombies?! all the more horrifying. If Janet had gotten herself infected by a virus in the Quantum Realm while waiting for Hank to save her, who says the people living there haven't become undead zombies and are eating each other in that universe's Quantum Realm? Zombie Thanos is bad enough, just imagine how terrifying a zombie Kang would be...
- The Kangs. Even if you manage to kill all of the Kangs around the multiverse, MCU's Kang will still be born in the future. Time traveling is different in the MCU, so Reed Richards can't travel to the future and prevent a descendant from having children. The only solution to stop their Kang is for Reed to make a Heroic Sacrifice.
- In Avengers: Endgame, Thanos and his army passed through the Quantum Realm on their way to 2023. Now, just imagine if they'd run into Kang and his empire on the way through. There are several ways that might have gone, all of them extremely bad. It could end with a victory for Kang, in which case he'd gain knowledge of the Infinity Stones and the means to produce Pym Particles. Conversely, if Thanos won, he'd gain Kang's technology and likely add his forces to his own, which would probably mean he'd win the Battle of Earth and wipe out the universe. And that's not even accounting for the (small, but not non-existent) possibility that they decide a Villain Team-Up would be to their mutual benefit... Now, here's the thing: whatever the outcome might have been, somewhere in the Multiverse, there has to be a timeline where it actually happened.
- The Wombats being absent from this film may seem arbitrary at first, given that Scott and his family going into the Quantum Realm doesn't really involve them all that much. However, considering that the last time we ever saw Luis, Kurt and Dave was in 2018, it's entirely possible that they may have fallen on hard times, or worse: died during a non-Snap accident in a five-year interim. And considering that Luis never recovered his van before Scott escaped the Quantum Realm in 2023, things aren't looking good for them.
- More Fridge Squick than anything, but Dale outright states that he hasn't baked a cake in a long time, and it clearly shows in how awful the cake looks and tastes. There's a very real chance he didn't bake the batter fully. Hello salmonella...
- Kang explicitly has killed so many Avengers across the Multiverse he honestly can't remember who is who. What's to say a few X-Men and Spider-People weren't caught in as well?
- Xolum's first instinct when Scott and Cassie are caught is to torture them, and Quaz asking why that's his go-to idea implies this isn't the first time he's suggested it. Just how badly must the war against Kang have been going before the Scott-Pym family arrived that Xolum's first course of action is to torture any stranger they find for information?
- Darren invoking Do Not Call Me "Paul" and referring to himself only as M.O.D.O.K is primarily Played for Laughs throughout the film, but it's worth noting that he only reclaims his original name when he finally decides to turn against Kang during the climax. This implies that one of Kang's stipulations for letting M.O.D.O.K serve him without the threat of death was that he was literally forbidden to use his original name under any circumstances, which makes all the instances of M.O.D.O.K refusing to go by Darren seem much more tragic in retrospect.
- Kang has destroyed many timelines. He has definitely killed variants of Janet and her family unless the timelines he destroyed, they were all somehow killed or don’t exist. This makes Kang’s promise to keep Janet and her family’s universe out of his conquest questionable since he already has large chance killed Janet and her family, in a way, through their variants. It also makes his relationship with her creepy and dark in hindsight because there’s a good chance he knows who she is through her variants since the Pyms are famous scientists in at least a few universes, like a mass murderer being in the same room as someone who is their type of victim and them being none the wiser.
- There is a good chance Kang is not dead at the end of the movie, but only trapped in the engine core's probability storm. While other pages about this movie pointed out that the other reason besides him having no Pym Particles for why he can’t shrink the core himself is that he wouldn’t be able to reconcile with his other selves to commit to a goal, but what if he does learn to do this? Also, based on how Scott’s other variants have the same capabilities as Scott, such as turning into Giant Man, any of Scott’s variants could have shrunk the core, although it seems like it has to be the main Scott and Hope that have to shrink the core, it is possible that there will be a variant or two of Kang with Pym Particles. That means that not only can Kang escape, but if he reconciles, or at least learns to work together with his variants, he will come back as an even more capable threat. The whole Council of Kangs was needed to Exile him, what will happen if this variant of Kang becomes even more dangerous?
