Spoiler warning: Spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania follow. When most fans go to see a new Marvel movie like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, they’re probably keeping their eyes peeled for easter eggs that hint at other Marvel superheroes, clues about what could happen in possible sequels, and maybe even a surprise cameo or two from another actor. But there was one cameo that I definitely wasn’t expecting to see in this movie, and it has nothing to do with Marvel. That’s right — I’m talking about the blink-and-you-miss-it appearance by Ryan Bergara.
Bergara and his wife Marielle Scott have a very brief appearance in one of Quantumania’s opening scenes. As Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) is walking through San Francisco with an inner monologue about how nice his life is going (though that changes pretty quickly, given the plot of the film), Bergara and Scott are seen sitting at a restaurant table and toasting Ant-Man with their drinks. I did a double-take when I first saw them, but sure enough, their names are listed in the credits next to their character names of Toasting Man and Toasting Woman.
Bergara is best known for being one half of the BuzzFeed Unsolved duo with Shane Madej. He has since migrated from BuzzFeed to his and Madej’s own YouTube channel with fellow former BuzzFeed star Steven Lim. Their channel, Watcher, currently boasts 2.45 million subscribers, who are treated to a range of videos featuring food, history, comedy, and some good ol’ ghost hunting. Bergara’s got an entire fandom known as Boogaras, a nod to his spooky Unsolved content, who definitely freaked out about this cameo.
In fact, this is not the first time Bergara or Watcher have been associated with Marvel. In January 2022, Bergara and Madej dropped an episode of their series Top 5 Beatdown on the channel, with the theme “Top 5 Marvel Deaths.” Throughout their ranking and discussion, Bergara proved himself to be a true Marvel fan, and even mentioned the time in 2018 that he and Madej dressed up as Vision for Halloween on an episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved: Postmortem (well, dead Vision — watch the video for context). In the video, Bergara says that Paul Bettany, who plays Vision, even saw the photo and commented on it. So even though he later deleted his comment, Quantumania isn’t the first time Bergara’s brushed shoulders with a Marvel star.
Not to mention, Bergara has an even closer link to Marvel through Lim. Lim posted an episode of his own series, Dish Granted, that featured Simu Liu, aka Marvel superhero Shang-Chi. Apparently, Lim and Liu go way back, so it’s not outlandish to think Bergara might have met him before. That said, Liu isn’t in Quantumania, so this cameo is still pretty much coming out of left field.
Bergara’s wife Scott, who appears alongside him in the movie, is an actress who’s been in projects like You, Lady Bird, and A Teacher, so honestly, if I had to guess, I’d put this cameo down to her connections in the industry. Scott even posted a carousel on Instagram of her watching Clueless with the caption, “The Paul Rudd of it all,” in August 2021. Considering initial filming for Quantumania took place from February to November 2021, according to IMDbPro, it’s very possible this caption was a nod at her appearance in Rudd’s movie. (For what it’s worth, Bergara’s “Top 5 Marvel Deaths” video came out in January 2022, also possibly after Bergara would’ve already filmed his scene without fans knowing. Sneaky, sneaky!)
For now, I guess we’ll have to wait until Scott or Bergara decide to dish the details on how this cameo came to be. But honestly, an Unsolved-Marvel crossover is kind of epic — perhaps a 2023 Marvel-themed Halloween costume is in order?