What Is Chronopolis – The Quantum Realm City In Ant Man 3?

Marvel is about to introduce one of its most bizarre and fantastic fictional cities – the Chronopolis, in Ant-Man 3. But, what is it?

By Mohit Srivastava
January 11,2023
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Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is slowly exploring the uncharted corners of the Marvel universe lately. The comic universe is full of fantastic realms, universes, and dimensions (some are too weird for live-screen adaptation). Thor: Love and Thunder introduced us to the Omnipotence City – the Marvel equivalent realm of Gods (more on it here). We are now about to dive into Chronopolis – a highly advanced city in the Quantum Realm in the upcoming Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania (Feb 2023). So what is it? Let’s explore.

Chronopolis

Chronopolis in the Marvel comics

In the comics, Chronopolis is a time-spanning stronghold of Kang, which is located on the outskirts of timeless Limbo, existing half in Limbo and half in reality. It is covered by a huge transparent dome and contains access points to all of the time-eras that Kang had conquered or was in the process of conquering. It was founded by Victor Timely (another Kang variant) as existing in the same space as a town named Timely in Wisconsin of Earth-616, but out of phase in the same timestream.

This makes the city undetectable to the people of Earth. The city was powered by the Heart of Forever – a trans-chronal engine that enabled Chronopolis to simultaneously exist in every branch of the timestream. Each block of Chronopolis extends to the ends of the Earth in a different time period. The more primitive time periods are on the outskirts, the more advanced towards the center, and the heart is dominated by Kang’s Citadel. The city was eventually destroyed by another powerful Kang variant – Immortus. He activated the Heart of Forever and activated it, causing the city and everything in it to implode within itself. 

Ant-Man 3

Chronopolis in the MCU

‘He Who Remains’ (played by Jonathan Majors) before his death in the finale of Loki, had warned about his variants and how ruthless they could be. Now finally Jonathan Majors is about to unleash his fury with his ruthless portrayal of Kang. the Conqueror in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania. This version of Kang has the ability to alter reality on a fundamental level and destroy entire timelines as well. He understands the nature of time well and controls its repercussions across the timeline. He does so from his city – Chronopolis. In the MCU, Limbo probably now exists in Quantum Realm. Thus Chronopolis also becomes the logical part of the Quantum Realm. Hopefully, the movie shall be able to explore this weird city more.

As seen in the latest Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania trailer, the architecture of MCU’s Chronopolis seems to be full of many easter eggs. The pyramidal structure in which Kang resides could probably be a subtle reference to a variant of Kang named Pharoah Rama-Tut. The circular motiffs and the engravings on them are reminiscent of another MCU design – Shang-Chi’s Ten Rings. But nothing concrete can be said now, it will only become clear once the movie is released. 

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is set to release on February 17th, 2022 in theatres worldwide.