What The Quantum Realm Is? How It Works and Where We Have Seen It In Movies and Series
The Quantum Realm has always been a pivotal place in the Marvel comic universe and is now preparing to become one for the MCU as well. But what exactly is the Quantum Realm? What are his origins and where did he see himself before starring in the Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania trailer? The Quantum Realm is a real dimension of the Marvel Multiverse that is quite difficult to achieve… but not impossible!
In this article, we tell you some important facts to know and curiosities about this fantastic dimension that is the Quantum Realm. Starting from the world of cinema, passing to television one and above all that Marvel comics.
The Quantum Realm in MCU movies and TV series
The Quantum Realm first appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the 2015 film Ant-Man. This introduction is followed by appearances in the first episode of the third season of Agents of SHIELD (2015), followed by the films. Doctor Strange of 2016, Ant-Man and the Wasp of 2018 and Avengers: Endgame of 2019. Finally, the Quantum Realm is also present in the fifth episode of the first season of What if…? of 2021. All the titles mentioned are available on the Disney+ streaming platform.
The Quantum Realm in Ant-Man (2015)
The first definition of the Quantum Realm in the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes from the words of scientist Hank Pym:
A reality where every concept of time and space becomes irrelevant, and you would shrink for eternity. Everything you know and love will disappear forever.
To finally defeat his enemy Bumblebee, Ant-Man is reduced to the sub-atomic level. This allows him to win the battle with his enemy, but despite himself, he is transported to the Quantum Realm. It is practically impossible to get out of this condition, but Scott Lang aka Ant-Man succeeds through a stroke of luck mixed with his intuition: he modifies the mechanism of his superhero suit and returns to its normal size.
The Quantum Realm in Agents of SHIELD (2015)
In the first episode of the third season of Agents of SHIELD, titled Laws of Nature, agent Leo Fitz is on a search for agent Jemma Simmons, who has disappeared due to the Monolith (a kind of portal to another dimension). Fitz doesn’t give up, but many of his colleagues think Simmons is dead or lost forever in the vast universe. Towards the end of the episode, Fitz argues with Agent Phil Coulson. The latter verbally reviews what Fitz did to search for his beloved colleague and companion Simmons. The Quantum Realm is indirectly mentioned in this account:
You’ve already considered every answer but the most obvious. You thought Simmons was trapped in the Monolith, but instrumental scans have shown that the rock is full. Then, after the disaster at Pym Technology, it had been reduced to a microscopic level, but there was no evidence to support it.
This episode of the TV series Agents of SHIELD aired in the United States on September 29, 2015, which is just over a month after the first Ant-Man movie, which was released in America on August 12, 2015.
The Quantum Realm in Doctor Strange (2016)
In the first film dedicated to Stephen Strange or one of the most powerful wizards of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the protagonist finds himself in what appears to be the Quantum Realm. This only happens for a moment just as Strange’s consciousness traverses different realities and dimensions upon his arrival in Kamar-Taj.
The Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, protagonists Scott Lang, Hope van Dyne aka Wasp and Hank Pym want to free Hope’s mother and Hank’s wife, Janet van Dyne, who has been stuck within the Quantum Realm for many years. To succeed in their intent, the four protagonists open a quantum tunnel, which remains stable for two hours. Initially, only Hank enters the tunnel to save his wife, but Scott later enters as well when there are only 15 minutes left for the gap between dimensions to collapse. Fortunately, our Marvel heroes succeed in the mission and return safe and sound.
Less fortunate is the mission that takes place in the post-credits scene: Hank, Scott, Janet and Hope want to help Ghost, the girl who is the villain of the film for most of its development, but then allies herself with the protagonists. For this purpose, Ant-Man once again enters the Quantum Realm, but while inside it, Thanos snaps and wipes out half of the universe’s population randomly. Among the victims are also Wasp, Hank and Janet, who were supposed to bring Scott back from the Quantum Realm. Unable to do so anymore, Ant-Man gets stuck in the quantum dimension.
The Quantum Realm in Avengers: Endgame (2019)
As we saw in the previous paragraph, Ant-Man at the end of the Ant-Man and the Wasp movie is stuck in the Quantum Realm. Thanks to a mouse walking on the controls of the quantum tunnel machinery, he is fortunately freed and returns to his world of origin. While five years have passed on Earth, only a few hours have passed for Ant-Man. Ant-Man goes to the Avengers base and tells what happened. His story of him is the basis of the next super-heroes plan for the “blip”, ie the event that brings back to the universe all those who had been cancelled by the “snap”.
To carry out the plan of the Avengers, the Quantum Realm is used as a crossing point between various periods. If you enter the Quantum Kingdom from the present, you can leave it at a different age from the one you entered. Iron Man aka Tony Stark invents the device that allows you to control the time travel that exploits the Quantum Kingdom (of the very particular GPS) and the Avengers undertake the mission of recovering all the Infinity Stones from different points of the past.
The Quantum Realm in Agents of SHIELD (2020)
In the final episode of the latest season of Marvel’s Agent of SHIELD series, What We Struggle for, the protagonists must find a way to return to their reality. In this context, agent and scientist Leo Fitz explain to his fellow adventurers that by moving through the Quantum Realm they can cross the Multiverse:
Now I’ll explain the Multiverse. You have gone back in time and taken another direction, but if we move into the Quantum Realm, we will be able to move between the timelines.
In the episode in question, the agents of the SHIELD have machinery capable of acting as a quantum bridge.
The Quantum Realm in What if…? (2021)
The What If…? tells stories set in alternate universes concerning universe-616, which is the one in which the events we have described in the previous paragraphs are set. In the fifth episode of the first season of this animated TV series, Janet van Dyne contracted a virus during her stay in the Quantum Realm, which lasted thirty years. This virus, of unknown origin, turns Janet into a zombie. This explains the origin of the zombies in the Marvel universe.
The Quantum Realm in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
The next confirmed appearance of the Quantum Kingdom in the MCU is in the third film dedicated to Scott Lang: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, of which you can see the trailer. The film directed by Peyton Reed will be released in Italian cinemas on February 15, 2023. From the trailer, it is clear that the Quantum Kingdom will be a very important location for the film, but also the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, given that Kang the conqueror or the great villain of the Multiverse Saga.
How To Enter The Quantum Realm
In the MCU, there are three different ways to enter the Quantum Realm: with Pym Particles, with a quantum tunnel or by using magic. The Pym Particles allow to shrink the subject that is invested by them, and if the decrease in size exceeds a certain threshold, that is a limit value, the subject passes into the dimension of the Quantum Realm. The first MCU person that happens to is Janet van Dyne, as told in a flashback shown in the Ant-Man movie.
The first version of a functioning quantum tunnel in the MCU is built by Hank Pym and his daughter Hope van Dyne to save Janet van Dyne, Hank’s wife and Hope’s mother. This happens in the movie Ant-Man and the Wasp. Another quantum tunnel version is featured in the latest season of Agents of SHIELD. Later, a new and improved quantum tunnel is designed and operated by the Avengers over the course of the Avengers: Endgame movie, as a fundamental means of enacting the plan to retrieve the Infinity Stones and alter the course of history to beat Thanos.
The access to the Quantum Realm through magic happens only once in the MCU, to be precise in the movie Doctor Strange. In the Scott Derrickson-directed film, the Ancient One sends Strange’s consciousness through multiple realities and dimensions, including the Quantum Realm, as written earlier in this article. This passage in the Doctor Strange film is not well explained.
The Quantum Tunnel In The Origins Of Ghost
The attempt to build a quantum tunnel, never completed, is at the origin of the acquisition of the powers of Ava Starr aka Ghost. Ava’s father, Elihas Starr, was a colleague of Hank Pym, as told in the film Ant-Man and the Wasp. Elias Starr’s experiment with the quantum tunnel caused a serious accident, resulting in an explosion that killed him and his wife but spawned powers in their daughter Ava. The girl acquires an instability in the molecules of her body, which allows her to become intangible and invisible. Ghost as an adult is the antagonist of the film Ant-Man and the Wasp and will be one of the members of the Thunderbolts group in the film of the same name, due out on July 26, 2024.
The Quantum Realm in Marvel Comics
The Origin of the Quantum Realm
In the Marvel comics, the Quantum Realm is also referred to as the Microverse. The Marvel publishing house in the past owned the rights to the Micronauts, a line of toys of Japanese origin, of which it published the comic stories. The name of the universe of origin of these characters was precisely the Microverse, but when Marvel lost the rights to this line, it could no longer use the original wording.
At that point, the name was changed to Quantum Realm in English (Regno Quantico in Italian). Aside from the name change, there have been no other substantial changes to the Quantum Realm in the Marvel comics. Its structure and its morphology have remained unchanged.
- The first issue of the comic dedicated to Micronauts is Micronauts 1 published in the United States in September 1978
What is Inside the Quantum Realm
In the comics, the Quantum Realm is a real universe, within which there are several fascinating worlds. Among these worlds is K’ai which is inhabited by human traits, blond and green-skinned; Spartak which is a rocky and inhospitable world; Kaliklak which is inhabited by various species of “insectoids”; Sub-Atomic which is a system made up of 5 different worlds.
- K’ai’s first appearance is in Incredible Hulk volume 1 number 140 published in the United States in June 1971
- Spartak first appeared in Micronauts 1 released in the United States in September 1978
- Sub-Atomica first appeared in Fantastic Four volume 1 number 16 published in the United States in July 1963
Kang in the Quantum Realm
There are not many relationships between Kang and the dimension of the Quantum Realm in comic stories. However, there are many variations of Kang in the world of comics, and most of them travel in time and space, throughout the Multiverse. So it is likely that one of these variants stayed in the Quantum Realm or at least passed through it.
