The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s standard formula for post-credits scenes has been to drop footage that was shot specifically for the movie in question people are currently sitting through, but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania upended the established order by featuring the first look at Loki season 2.
While it was sound in theory given that Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror was the big bad of Scott Lang’s third solo adventure and everybody knew variant Victor Timely was set to pop up in the second run of adventures for Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief, the maiden footage coming lumped with the franchise’s worst-reviewed entry ever wasn’t the most idyllic of starts.
You’d have thought the Loki team would have been kept in the loop from day one seeing as production was underway when Quantumania landed with a dull thud, but as director Kasra Farahani revealed to ScreenRant, that was a call made from above that came much later in the day.
“Well, what I can tell you is that we shot this before there was any decision to use it as a post-credit scene. That decision came later.”
Timely was absent from the Council of Kangs stinger at the end of Quantumania (unless an eagle-eyed viewer out there spotted him), which could be an intriguing detail to be picked up by either the remainder of Loki season 2 or a future MCU project. On the plus side, at least the show hasn’t been tainted by the lingering stench of resentment left over from the Ant-Man threequel.