Loki's Subtle Fantastic Four Reference Explained | Screen Rant
The Void in Loki episode 5 features an important Easter egg not only related to Kang the Conqueror but also to the Fantastic Four.
Loki episode 5 took viewers to the Void, where a lot of Easter eggs related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics can be found, and among all those is a subtle but clever reference to the Fantastic Four. The MCU continues its expansion with its highly-anticipated Phase 4, which stands out from the previous ones as it covers both TV shows and movies. Kicking off this new wave were WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and viewers are now reuniting with the God of Mischief in Loki.
Loki was killed by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, but the time heist in Avengers: Endgame allowed his 2012 version to escape with the Tesseract, making way for his return in his own TV show. Loki sees the title character being brought to the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization that oversees the timeline and makes sure everything goes as planned, and Loki’s escape definitely wasn’t part of the plan. However, Loki was recruited to help the TVA find another variant of himself: Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who is on a quest to uncover the truth about the TVA. Loki and Sylvie ended up teaming up, and after a lot of obstacles and shocking reveals, they were sent to the Void, the TVA’s “dumping ground” found at the end of time.
As the Void is where every person and timeline pruned by the TVA ends up, Loki, Mobius (Owen Wilson), and Sylvie reunited there and came across other Loki variants and a giant beast known as Alioth. The Void turned out to be packed with Easter eggs from both the MCU and Marvel Comics, and there’s one that links both and sets up the arrival of a big villain who will make his debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Among the many destroyed buildings found in the Void is Avengers Tower, but not exactly as remembered by fans. Instead of having the big Avengers “A”, the Tower carries the name “Qeng”, a reference to a point in time where Kang purchased Avengers Tower from Tony Stark by using one of his alter-egos and also a reference to the Fantastic Four.
Kang the Conqueror is a time-traveling entity and as such various alternate versions of him have appeared through the years, most notably his past self (Iron Lad, member of the Young Avengers). But before he became the villain known as Kang the Conqueror, he was Nathaniel Richards, a possible descendant of Reed Richards’ father, with whom he shares a name. Reed’s father was a time-traveling scientist who saved the other Nathaniel’s timeline and thus the latter was named after him. Kang’s history in the comics can be confusing, but the MCU has made a lot of changes to its characters to better fit its narratives, so it wouldn’t be surprising if Kang is turned into Reed’s father to make it all less complicated. Now, the Qeng Tower in the Void shows that in at least one timeline, Kang purchased Avengers Tower, which not only sets up his arrival in Ant-Man 3 but also that of the Fantastic Four, who are confirmed to join the MCU in the near future.
Loki might be preparing the ground for Kang’s arrival, as it has been theorized that he’s the one behind the TVA and that the city shown right at the end of episode 5 is Kang’s Citadel. Whether he will make his debut appearance in the series finale of Loki or not is to be seen, but his arrival and that of the Fantastic Four have already been set up by adding Qeng Tower to the Void.