The following contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, now playing in theaters.
For every new installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the question invariably arises as to when a given movie or TV series takes place in the universe's timeline. A franchise of this size and complexity requires considerable care in determining what happens when, and with both time travel and alternate universes now officially on the table, the timeline becomes exponentially more complex. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania muddies the waters by spending the vast majority of its running time in the Quantum Realm, where time has no meaning, and the characters could emerge seconds or decades after they enter.
All of this makes pinning down Quantumania's spot in the timeline a bit of a challenge. There's no firm signpost beyond Avengers: Endgame, where Scott Lang and the rest of the Avengers undid the effects of The Snap. It gets a little help from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which features Easter eggs covering Scott Lang. That sets the story somewhere in the MCU's 2025, alongside several Phase Four projects.
Scott Lang Has Been Busy Since Avengers: Endgame
While Lang and the Ant Family haven't appeared onscreen in the MCU since the conclusion of Endgame, they haven't exactly been absent. Ms. Marvel Season 1, Episode 1, "Generation Why" refers to his podcast "Big Me, Little Me," and Kamala Khan records a YouTube speculating on Lang and Hope van Dyne's romantic trip to Paris. That fits with the opening scenes of Quantumania, as Scott enjoys the limelight that comes with being an Avenger, and he and Hope settle into a romantic relationship.
"Generation Why" also features AvengerCon, which Kamala sneaks out of her house to attend, and which takes place in late May 2025. That means her YouTube video was likely posted earlier in the month, which could put the initial montage in Quantumania at roughly the same time. It also tracks with the events of Wakanda Forever, which take place in 2025 as well and contains a specific Easter egg related to Lang.
Quantumania opens with Lang writing a bestselling book called Look Out for the Little Guy about his experiences as a superhero. The book is mentioned in the banner of a fictional news report during Wakanda Forever, which means the new movie takes place concurrently with the Black Panther sequel. In an interview with CinemaBlend posted to YouTube, Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore confirmed that his film and Quantumania take place at roughly the same time.
The Quantum Realm Makes Quantumania's Timeframe Harder to Determine
The wild card in Quantumania's timetable comes from the fact that almost all of it is spent in the Quantum Realm, where time is meaningless and permits people like Kang to move to different universes and realities. That means that events taking place in Quantumania could affect both the past and the future of the MCU. While the film could be compressed into the few ticks of the clock in the franchise's "normal" reality, it's largely unbound by time and, therefore, could take place whenever a given future project has narrative need.
That sounds unduly complicated, but considering Kang's importance to Phase Five -- and the kaleidoscope of realities he's likely to bring with him -- the caveat could be necessary. Quantumania's space on the timeline requires only a few cross-references to confirm. But the can of worms it unleashes has the potential to take place anywhere on the timeline, while further trips to the Quantum Realm could take place before, during or after Quantumania without creating continuity errors. In other words, all bets are off.
To learn more about the Quantum Realm, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in theaters.