Captain Marvel May Be The Key To Ant-Man & The Wasp's Cliffhanger

WARNING: This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Ant-Man & The Wasp

Ant-Man & The Wasp's mid-credits cliffhanger could well be resolved in Captain Marvel. It's been previously established that both movies will deal with the Quantum Realm, and though we know what role the alternate dimension plays in Scott Lang, we don't yet know how Carol Danvers is connected to it. Considering Scott's precarious position by the end of Ant-Man & The Wasp, it's possible that Captain Marvel may just be the one to save him from being trapped in the Quantum Realm.

Captain Marvel's debut standalone which would establish her existence in the story long before Tony Stark outed himself as Iron Man. Not much is known about the movie's plot yet - especially since it's not fully adapting Carol Danvers' superhero origins from the comic books - but the focal point of discussion right now is where exactly Captain Marvel has been, since there has been no mention of her existence whatsoever in the last 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This Page: Captain Marvel & The Quantum Realm
Page 2: How Captain Marvel Can Save Scott From The Quantum Realm

Captain Marvel & The Quantum Realm

The current popular assumption is that Carol Danvers is out in space. After all, Captain Marvel is going to incorporate the Kree-Skrull war in its story, not to mention Kevin Feige's 2014 comments about Carol's adventures being mostly set in the cosmos. But is it possible that she may be somewhere else entirely... like maybe in a different dimension? Perhaps even the Quantum Realm?

As Hank simply put it in the first Ant-Man, it's "a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant." While Ant-Man & The Wasp offered some new tidbits about the Quantum Realm, much of it still remains a mystery. Shall Carol really be in the Quantum Realm, does she also age the same way Janet did in the last 30 years? How did she get in there, and how will she get out of there? No one knows yet, but the comics may offer some clues as to what Marvel Studios is planning to do.

In the comics, Captain Marvel is no stranger to the Quantum Realm. The original iteration of the hero, Captain Mar-Vell (who was later revealed to be a Skrull imposter in this particular storyline), claimed to have encountered a fold in time and space that allowed him to be transported to the modern-day world. Since Marvel Studios is known for picking out pieces of story from the comics to use in movies, they could easily adapt a similar subplot for Carol on the big screen. Admittedly, while this plot is a too complex to adapt to the hero's origins story in the MCU, it provides precedence regarding the character, the Quantum Realm and the possibilities of time travel through it.

Wherever Carol is at of the moment, one thing is for sure: she's not trapped. She can leave the place where she is right now, should any circumstance calls for her return. Avengers: Infinity War's post-credit scenes featured Nick Fury sending a distress signal to Carol just before he was also disintegrated by Thanos' finger snap. This suggests that Captain Marvel left on her accord, as she was able to arrange a way for Fury to contact her, should she ever be needed to come back to Earth.

Page 2: How Captain Marvel Can Save Scott From The Quantum Realm

How Captain Marvel Can Save Scott From The Quantum Realm

Following Team Ant-Man's successful rescue operation of Janet van Dyne in the Quantum Realm, the Pyms alongside Scott continue to explore the alternate dimension with the help of the Quantum Tunnel as seen in the Ant-Man & The Wasp's mid-credit scene. The portal, which was miniaturized and installed at the back of Luis' old van, allows people to safely go back and forth to the Quantum Realm without having to go subatomic and risk the possibility of getting lost down there. Assuming that all will go well, since the Pyms are controlling the tech, Scott goes back in the portal to collect Quantum Energy in an effort to help Ghost fully heal - but not before a fair warning from Janet not to enter a Time Vortex, where they won't be able to save him.

Scott is now trapped there anyway, since Hank, Janet, and Hope disintegrated following Thanos' deadly snap in Infinity War. But as with Marvel Studios' penchant for foreshadowing, there's got to be a reason why Janet specifically name-dropped Time Vortex during her parting message to Scott.

In the real world, the concept of Time Vortex (or Space-Time Vortex) was postulated by Albert Einstein in the early 1900s as part of his general theory of relativity which asserts that mass causes space-time to curve. Earth's mass distorts spacetime and things moving near that mass roll toward it, and since Earth spins, this would cause a twist in the fabric of space-time. It's a pretty complex idea that's still being studied, but in pop culture the idea is frequently used as an explanation for travel through time and space. It's still unknown how exactly the MCU is planning to use Time Vortex to service their story, but it could essentially be a way for people to end up in an entirely different era or reality.

Assuming that Captain Marvel is a frequent visitor of the Quantum Realm, it's possible that during one of her voyages she encounters a lost Scott Lang in the alien dimension. With her whereabouts currently unknown, she could be literally anywhere, and perhaps the only way for her to travel back to Earth in the present day is to pass through the Quantum Realm. Since she received Fury's message around the same time that Scott got trapped in the Quantum Realm, a chance meeting is possible. This also neatly explains how the Quantum Realm can be a means of space and time transportation in the MCU - important concepts that will surely factor in Avengers 4. Considering that Ant-Man & The Wasp has still barely scratched the surface, Captain Marvel may have cracked the code (or at least more of it) when it comes to Quantum Realm, establishing more of how it works enough for people to buy it as how Tony Stark travels back in time to rewrite history.

Captain Marvel is expected to provide some of the answers to the burning questions Ant-Man & The Wasp has left with regard to the Quantum Realm and how it'll factor into the MCU's foreseeable future. At this point, there are only three Marvel franchises that feature the Quantum Realm: Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and Captain Marvel. While Strange's origins did not explicitly tackle the alternate dimension compared to Ant-Man, between him knowing how the Avengers can win against Thanos in Avengers 4 and his awareness of the Quantum Realm, it makes sense to assume that he's behind bringing all these pieces of puzzle together to help Earth's Mightiest Heroes defeat the Mad Titan.