Quantumania ended with Scott blowing up Kang’s multiversal core and the blue-hued baddie being presumed dead. This briefly trapped Hope and Scott in the Quantum Realm, and as the pair looked out on their new home, it seemed like the perfect time for the credits to roll. Instead, we switched back to Cassie, who used her invention to pull Ant-Man and the Wasp back out. Scott and the Pym van Dynes celebrated Cassie’s fake birthday, while the first post-credit scene had the Council of Cross-Time Kangs assembling and one pronouncing Quantumania’s Kang dead (don’t count on it).
If you thought the transition between Hope and Scott in the Quantum Realm and Cassie’s rescue felt slightly abrupt, you aren’t alone. When Heavy Spoilers reported on the October leak, it was thought that Hope returned to the Quantum Realm but Kang managed to escape. This left the pair stranded, similar to how Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) left Kang there. Apparently, the original post-credits featured Cassie running multiple simulations on how to save Hope and Scott, with her eyes going wide when she spotted something mysterious on a screen… cut to black.
The birthday meal now looks like a last-minute inclusion. January set photos showed Rudd holding the Baskin-Robbins cake, and although it originally looked like this was from the opening montage, it’s clear that it’s actually from the restaurant ending. Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas are sporting their finale outfits for the reshoots, while others noted (via Twitter) that Lilly’s hair is its usual color during the escape from the Quantum Realm, not the darker pixie cut we saw throughout.
Would the Alternate Ending Make Quantumania Better?
If we were to take the leaks as gospel, Quantumania‘s original ending raised the stakes and left the Kang we’d just spent the last 150 minutes getting to know as a major threat. Having Hope and Scott trapped in the Quantum Realm for the proposed Ant-Man 4 would’ve given us another reason to visit there, and possibly bring back Bill Murray’s Krylar.
The “family reunited” ending, while Scott worries about the threat the Exiled One foreshadowed, is a rehash of the Loki season 1 finale, where He Who Remains (played by Majors) warned Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) that killing him would lead to worse versions rearing their heads. Having various characters know about Kang(s) as a looming threat could conceivably get a little dull if Phase 5 continues the trend of peppering variants in shows and movies.
On the other hand, Hope and Scott being lost to the Quantum Realm mirrors the latter being stuck down there at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Also, the fact that a potential Ant-Man 4 will almost definitely release after Avengers: The Kang Dynasty – and because it’s hard to imagine Ant-Man and the Wasp not being part of it – means we would’ve had to spring them from the Quantum Realm anyway.
