The Avengers: Endgame trailer released a few days ago. Ever since the release of the trailer the fandom has gone crazy dissecting each and every frame of the new footage contained in the trailer. The fandom has tirelessly perused through the entirety of it and is working on concocting crazy yet feasible theories that guess at the plot of Avengers: Endgame. Endgame is coming, the end of Phase 3 is coming and our heroes are gearing up for the fight of their lives.
The trailer showcased our enthusiasm and made it a point to include callbacks to old Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to make us realize just how far the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come, from the depths of the cave in Iron Man to the expanses of space. The Marvel Cinematic Universe now stands at 22 interconnected movies that all reference each other and add to a common narrative.
The most important movie to come out after Infinity War in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to be Ant-Man and the Wasp. Although the movie came out after Avengers: Infinity War, the events of the movie actually occur concurrently to the crusade of Thanos. As the Titan collected the infinity stones to wipe out half of all life in creation, Ant-Man and the Wasp battled Ghost and rescue Hank Pym’s wife from the quantum realm.
The end of Ant-Man and the Wasp saw Ant-Man enter the quantum realm to harness the quantum energy but in the after credits scene, we see Hank, Hope and the Wasp being dusted just outside the van containing the quantum tunnel effectively trapped in the quantum realm at the end of Infinity War. So it came as a surprise to the entire fandom when Ant-Man made an appearance in both the Endgame trailers. How did this hero escape the quantum realm and how does he make his way back to the Avengers.
It is the belief of the fandom that Ant-Man enters one of the time portals in the quantum realm and gets stuck in it. The idea being that the time portal throws Ant-Man out in an undetermined time period be it the past (as implicated in the first Avengers: Endgame trailer) or perhaps a desolate future (as implicated in the second trailer with a hopeless future of missing posters). The suggestion is that the time portal does not spit out Ant-Man all at once but traps him in the quantum realm in a state of entanglement whereby he’s pulsating in and out of time.
If this theory holds true then it would mean that modern-day Scott Lang is pulsating in and out of time. It is possible that Ant-Man visits various time periods in quick successions, like a lot of old Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and he has to now remain under the radar and make sure that he does not affect the continuity. It is also possible that the sequence of scenes where Ant-Man Is making his way through the rubble is placed in the New York battle and Ant-Man is navigating through the debris of the battle.
This kind of escapades by Ant-Man will go a long way to establish the consequences of time travel and the limitation of it. It may as well be the introduction the audience needs before a full-fledged time quest by the Avengers to collect the infinity stones. It is highly likely that the quantum realm will be even more unpredictable and unstable after the events of Infinity War and time travel through it will be harder than all of the fandom anticipates.
But the idea that Ant-Man is pulsating in and out of time is a very interesting one. Maybe this is the gateway that will be used by the Marvel studio writers to showcase how the snap has affected the heroes in the long run. Maybe Scott Lang will see a desolate future and thereby guide the Avengers when he does resurface in the present. But doing so without disturbing the current continuity will be a process involving great dexterity and skill. Is Ant-Man up to this task? Only time will tell. Avengers: Endgame comes out on April 26th, 2019, up until then, keep watching this space for everything Marvel.
