Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania spoilers follow.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed has dissected the first mid-credits scene from his new MCU blockbuster, which features three mysterious variants of Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conquerer.
Gathered together are the blue-hued Immortus, pharaoh Rama-Tut and a fresh, bionic spin on the Scarlet Centurion, discussing what has become of the Quantum Realm 'exile'.
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"He talks about his variants in the film, and obviously he was playing He Who Remains in season one of Loki, so it's been discussed, and it's like, 'Well, at what point do we actually show some of the variants and that the Kang is a nexus being?'" Reed told IndieWire.
Related: Ant-Man 3's Jonathan Majors reveals Iron Man's influence on Kang the Conqueror
"Then it was like, 'Well, what if we give them a little taste of a version of Rama-Tut, a version of a Centurion, a version of Immortus?'"
Reed continued: "In the movie, there's a specific reason he's been banished and exiled into the Quantum Realm, so it sort of begged the question of, 'Well, who exiled him?'"
"I was trying to set up some version of a Godfather-esque mafia thing of like, 'Oh, who's triumphant? Who's discussing the guy who's no longer with us? And what does it mean to the larger sort of political body of the Kangs?'"
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Don't expect the trio to turn up in the MCU post-Quantumania, though – in the same way Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness might be the only time we see that particular Illuminati.
"Are these necessarily the ones that we're going to see later? Who knows?" Reed went on to tease.
"But there are variants of each one, and we got really whacked out with it."
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is out now in cinemas.
Reporter, Digital Spy
Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
