The Ant-Man Shout-Out You Totally Missed In Loki Episode 5

Now that "Loki" Episode 5, "Journey into Mystery," is finally out in the world, there's only one more chapter to go until the Marvel Studios series wraps up its first season. There's already talk of a second season in the works, but Disney+ hasn't completely confirmed it as of yet. If anything is clear during "Journey into Mystery," it's that there's still plenty more for Loki to explore across the Sacred Timeline.

The episode was crammed full of Easter eggs from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as the comics. Has anyone else stopped losing their mind over seeing Throg in live-action, even just for a second? Crazy. But there were a few other references to the comics, like President Loki — also played by Tom Hiddleston — who originally appeared in a 2016 storyline, "Vote Loki," written by Chris Hastings. In the Disney+ show, the character has gathered his own army of Loki variants in the Void, which is located at the end of time, where the Alioth consumes things sent  by the Time Variance Authority. 

By introducing the Void, Marvel Studios found the perfect way to reference a number of its movies, like the first "Ant-Man" in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

Cast your mind back to 2015 — which feels like an entire era ago — and to when Paul Rudd was learning to become a superhero in Peyton Reed's "Ant-Man." The miniature hero fought Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), also known as the nefarious Yellowjacket, with technology he'd developed by ripping off designs originally created by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Cross was eventually killed by being shrunk uncontrollably when Ant-Man plunged through the Yellowjacket suit. However, it looks like a variant of Cross wound up somewhere he shouldn't have been.

When Loki and the rest of the variants are trudging to the entrance to their underground shelter, the sweeping landscape shot reveals a giant version of the Yellowjacket helmet resting on the ground. It looks like there was a variant of Darren Cross who wound up growing larger, similar to when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) turned into Giant-Man during "Captain America: Civil War." That definitely wouldn't fit within the Sacred Timeline. Maybe it's a tease for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," because fans only presumed Cross had died at the end of the first film. It would definitely be surprising if the villain was hiding out somewhere in the Quantum Realm.

Although having Jonathan Majors as Kang and Darren Cross as Yellowjacket could be overkill, who knows? Actually, Kevin Feige definitely knows.