It’s been months since Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania hit theaters, and Marvel fans are still trying to wrap their brains around one of the more disappointing MCU offerings in recent memory. Despite the colossal amount of hype that fans had going into the film, Quantummania failed to deliver the epic introduction to Kang that fans were expecting.
Since the movie’s release, fans have been debating how easily Scott and Hope escaped Kang’s grasp, trying to reconcile the easily-defeated Kang presented in the film with the idea of Kang the Conqueror. The movie left fans feeling unfulfilled, puzzled over the apparent lack of consequences, and wondering how Ant-Man was able to defeat a villain capable of offing Thanos all on his own.
Fans have spent months debating the various ways Quantummania could have been improved, with suggestions ranging from Ant-Man taking over Kang’s title as conqueror, to Hope and Scott being left to languish forever in the Quantum Realm. A recent theory puts the others to shame — and may even have some basis in reality.
First posted by the Instagram account BingeRampage, the theory says that the easy win was a ploy set in motion by the defeated Kang-Variant. The Insta asserts that the weirdness in Scott’s return to the real world comes from the fact that Scott never made it home. The Avenger’s merry stroll through downtown San Francisco is plagued by visions of purple and green. People on his daily route are swathed in the vibrant colors, and as Scott makes his way through the crowd, his sense of dread keeps rising up, spurred by the PTSD-inducing hues. BingeRampage asserts that the color scheme indicates that Ant-Man is trapped in a time loop, or at the very least is stuck in a reality-warping situation similar to The Matrix.
While one can argue that the color effect is there to help audiences identify the incredible amount of anxiety that Scott is plagued with after the harrowing ordeal, there were a few specific moments that elevate the BingeRampage account’s claim.
They asserted that during Scott’s ending monologue, a couple partially-obscured by a woman in purple walks around him, and in a move that is either incredibly calculated — or the product of really terrible editing— the pair reappears in front of him just moments after they’ve passed.
After Scott arrives at Cassie’s birthday celebration, the muted colors of the room are cut through with purple balloons and a vibrant cake. In support of the theory, one Reddit user pointed out that even the interactions with the coffee shop owner felt off.
Other users were less convinced, feeling that the colors were symbolic of only the looming anxiety over his recent adventures.
A common thread in the discussion was the lack of consistency most viewers felt in the film’s grand finale. We wrote about the movie’s reshoots back in February, so the dissonance fans feel is incredibly real. The plan was for Scott and Hope to be trapped in the Quantum realm for a while, and the changes came with the studios decision to ensure Ant-Man and The Wasp could team-up in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
There isn’t a way to prove the reality matrix just yet, but as soon as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania comes to streaming we’re definitely re-watching for a chance to prove or disprove the theory.