Loki episode 5 reveals that it’s possible for a one-time villain to return: Yellowjacket, and here’s how. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen a variety of characters come and go, especially villains, as this universe is known for having a “villain problem”. With all the changes the MCU has been going through and with shows like WandaVision and Loki pushing the limits and introducing new concepts, most notably that of the multiverse, there are a lot of opportunities for some of those fallen characters to return, and among those is Ant-Man’s antagonist Yellowjacket, as hinted in a scene in Loki.

Avengers: Infinity War saw the death of Loki, but Avengers: Endgame brought him back as Loki from 2012 escaped with the Tesseract, creating a new branch in the timeline. Loki, then, sees the title character being brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that oversees the timeline and makes sure everything goes according to plan. TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) decides to use Loki’s abilities to catch another Loki variant, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), but the plan doesn't go as expected, as both Lokis end up teaming up to uncover the truth about the TVA. Loki episode 5 saw Loki and Sylvie in the Void, where a lot of MCU and Marvel Comics Easter eggs can be found.

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Among those is Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll), whose helmet, though in giant form, can be seen in the Void in the first part of episode 5. Yellowjacket is the name of the suit Dr. Darren Cross used in his debut appearance in Ant-Man, and he was the protégé of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). However, Cross betrayed his mentor and took his place as CEO of Pym Technologies, rebranding it as Cross Technologies, and became obsessed with Pym Particles. Cross tried to recreate these to sell them to organizations like HYDRA and the Ten Rings, which led him to create the Yellowjacket suit, his own version of the Ant-Man one. On his quest to end Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and his family, Cross took Cassie Lang hostage so Scott would rescue her, making way for a battle in Cassie’s toy train tracks. The only way Ant-Man could defeat Yellowjacket was by shrinking to a subatomic level and turning off the regulator in Cross’ suit, crushing him to subatomic size.

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The Yellowjacket helmet on the Void suggests there was another version of the character in another timeline, where his suit could grow to a giant level, very much like the current Ant-Man suit can. This could suggest that there was a timeline where Yellowjacket took Ant-Man’s place, as was his original plan, but somehow created a Nexus event that led to him being dropped into the Void and consumed by Alioth, as the helmet looked rusty, just like the ship when Alioth consumed its occupants. Just like with the Loki variants, it’s possible there’s another version of Yellowjacket out there, and he could potentially return in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, more so if Kang the Conqueror ends up being a link between Loki and the third Ant-Man movie.

The multiverse and now the Void open up a world of possibilities for the MCU, as many characters can return and not necessarily played by the same actors as before, though this can also backfire as it risks becoming repetitive and reaching a point where its tedious and doesn’t feel like a cohesive universe anymore. It’s to be seen if this Yellowjacket Easter egg in Loki will pay off in the near future or if it was simply a treat for MCU fans.

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