16. Kate Bishop Cameo
At the very end of the movie, Kamala Khan surprises Kate Bishop by showing up at her pad and asking to team up with her. In a speech that perfectly mirrors Nick Fury’s at the end of Iron Man, she tells Kate about her plan to bring together a group of “remarkable young people.” This is a reference to the Young Avengers team from the comics, a group of second generation superheroes that includes Kate as one of its members.
17. ‘Ant-Man Has A Daughter’
As an aside, Kamala tells Kate that Ant-Man has a daughter. This is Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), who builds her own Ant-Man/Pym Particle suit in Ant-Man: Quantumania. So that makes three Young Avengers so far: Kamala, Cassie, and Kate. Who else can join that crew? Maybe Riri (Ironheart) and Yelena (Black Widow)? How about America (Miss America)? Time will tell.
18. Beast Cameo
The massive reveal in the mid-credits scene (there is no end-credits scene) is that Monica Rambeau wakes up in the Xavier Institute. The individual who’s monitoring her vital signs is Hank McCoy, better known as Beast. He’s played by Kelsey Grammer (Cheers, Frasier, The Simpsons), who also played Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand.
This begs so many questions. Is this new universe the same one from the original X-Men trilogy? Or is this a different universe altogether? And how is Disney/Marvel going to introduce these new characters to the rest of the Avengers and the citizens of Earth-616 in a way that feels authentic and unforced? Perhaps they’re going to follow up further in Deadpool 3 (2024), whose namesake hero is privy to breaking the fourth wall (and affiliated with Wolverine), which might help with some of the narrative heavy-lifting.