If any character in the Marvel Universe was the least likely to headline a big-budget MCU feature, it was probably Ant-Man. Originally developed back in the early days of the MCU as a project for beloved British director Edgar Wright (of Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver fame), that version fell apart due to the proverbial “creative differences.” Marvel eventually brought on comedy director Peyton Reed to helm the project, delivering a fun, quirky, and solid introduction to the world’s unlikeliest hero and a film that used his weird power set in a creative way. The movie also featured a winning cast with Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Pena. In 2018 the director and cast returned for Ant-Man and The Wasp, adding Michelle Pfeiffer and Randall Park. The follow-up film was another wacky and sillier adventure than the first outing, providing a crucial tie-in to the climactic Avengers: Endgame (2019).
With the imminent release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever just a few weeks away, Disney/Marvel dropped a teaser trailer for the third Ant-Man adventure, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. The creative team and cast are still intact, joined by Kathryn Newton (from HBO’s Big Little Lies) as Scott’s now teenage daughter Cassie and, surprisingly, Bill Murray. The plot is based around Cassie developing a quantum “satellite” that will send a signal to the quantum realm, unleashing all sorts of chaos. Ant-Man and his crew must journey down to the Quantum realm and fix things, with a possible diversion into the multi-verse, especially with the appearance of big baddie Kang the Conqueror, played with great menace by Jonathan Majors.
From the short teaser, we get all the weird and wild imagery that were hallmarks of the first two entries, plus a larger (and welcome) role for Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne. In fact, with daughter Cassie part of the mix, there is a family Fantastic Four vibe to the proceedings. And with Major’s Kang first introduced in the 2021 Disney + series Loki (playing a bizarre, mild-mannered variant of the baddie), will we see an appearance by the TVA security force featured in that series? I loved the Terry Gilliam-inspired Loki, so any connection would be a fun addition. And one of the next Avengers movies is entitled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty so this little Ant-Man adventure could be the stepping stone to something much bigger.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set for release on February 17, 2023. If you’re not suffering from MCU fatigue (I’m close but not there yet), check out the teaser trailer below and let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
I am suffering from Marvel fatigue, but I also know I’ll be one of the first people to see this when it opens I just thought after Infinity War and Endgame, Marvel would be smart enough to introduce new Avenger origin stories within multi-character, “team-up” movies. My thought was in order to keep the MCU’s more casual viewers engaged they’d need to fairly quickly re-capitalize on the concept of multiple Avengers fighting a “big bad” as we had just seen with the afore-mentioned films. Instead, we got multiple streaming stories, and they were mostly about just one character. Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thunder for me were messy, awkward entries as well, also leading nowhere fast. This trailer doesn’t do much for me, but here’s hoping the movie gets them back on track with a solid theatrical that also expands our understanding of where they are headed over the next two years.
I think Marvel might have over-extended itself by producing so many streaming series based on the MCU. While I”m mostly enjoying the product, it seems too much, mainly when Dr. Strange depends on plot elements from the Wanda Vision streaming show. Anyway, I hope Ant-Man can right the ship, and they start building toward another Avenger’s style endgame. I’m also looking forward to Black Panther in just a few weeks.
Agreed. Already have the Black Panther tickets!
Looks very cool. Love Ant-man and I still holding out for a return of Antony! Lol