Ant-Man 3 Trailer Might’ve Answered A Shang-Chi Mystery
The first trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania provides compelling evidence of a link to one of Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings’ biggest mysteries. The post-credits scene of Shang-Chi has been one of the MCU Phase 4’s biggest mysteries thus far, with Shang-Chi’s titular Ten Rings being revealed to be sending out a message to an unknown place. All that is confirmed by the surprise appearances of Wong, Bruce Banner, and Carol Danvers as they reveal that the Ten Ringsare not made of Vibranium, from the world of magic, or cosmic in nature.
One of the potential answers behind the Ten Rings and the beacon they are sending out could have been revealed in the first trailer for Ant-Man 3. In the trailer, Ant-Man, Wasp, Cassie Lang, Hank Pym, and Janet van Dyne are sucked into the Quantum Realm and encounter an entire microscopic universe, with Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror at its center. From the trailer, the shots of Kang’s city in the Quantum Realm provide the Ten Rings connection, with plenty of circular objects surrounding almost every shot of Kang. The main one though comes at around 1:27 in the new trailer when giant rings are shown around what looks to be Kang’s home. These rings are silver, with blue patterns on the inside, almost identical to the Ten Rings as shown in Shang-Chi.
While the rings from the Ant-Man trailer and Shang-Chi certainly have very similar designs, the question remains as to why Kang would be the recipient of the beacon the Ten Rings are sending out. As confirmed by Loki’s Kang variant, He Who Remains, other Kang variants are much less benevolent and want to conquer the multiverse. In doing so, Kang may want powerful weapons capable of doing so, such as the Ten Rings. The Ten Rings could have been created by an alternate universe Kang (explaining the Avengers not knowing their origin) and the beacon was only able to be sent after the death of He Who Remains and the expansion of the multiverse.
Also, the Ten Rings provide a connection to another realm in Ta-Lo. Given how Kang is in the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man 3, he may be looking at means from other known realms to help his conquest, explaining the connection to a Ta-Lo and also potentially Ms. Marvel’s bracelet and the realm of Noor. Aside from all this, the Ten Rings grant long life, if not immortality. If Kang did create the Ten Rings and wants them back, hence the beacon, he may just want to use their power to give himself the time to conquer the entire multiverse.
Something else that supports this connection, is the confirmation of Destin Daniel Cretton directing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Cretton previously directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and is now directing Avengers 5, leading many to think Shang-Chi will play a big role in the film. Cretton was the one who initially came up with the Ten Rings sending out a beacon, given his writing credits on Shang-Chi, meaning he likely has an idea of where that will go. Destin Daniel Cretton directing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty means it could be officially revealed in that film, with strong hints of the connection coming in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
