DISCLAIMER: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!! 

Please DO NOT continue reading this article if you intend on seeing this movie since it does contain MAJOR Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania spoilers (originally released exclusively in theaters on February 17th, 2023). 

Previous Articles 

(SPOILER FREE) Go check out a previous Quantumania article, “Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Official Trailer Breakdown and Hidden Details”, which broke down the first official Quantumania trailer released in October. The trailer was to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” as it did fit perfectly into Quantumania on a “thematic level”. 

https://talonnews.org/1509/entertainment/marvel-studios-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-official-trailer-breakdown-and-hidden-details/

(SPOILER FREE) Go check out a previous Quantumania article, Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania New Trailer Breakdown and Hidden Details”, which broke down the most current Quantumania trailer, released as ticket sales began to drop. 

https://talonnews.org/2518/entertainment/marvel-studios-ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantumania-new-trailer-breakdown-and-hidden-details/

“Look Out For the Little Guy…” Scott Lang’s MCU Journey 

Now that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is officially here, you should probably know what happened in Scott Lang’s life that led up to his crazy family trip to the Quantum Realm. So to prepare for Quantumania, here are all the movies you should watch prior to the third Ant-Man film. Please note you don’t have to watch everything in the Marvel lineup but these are the most important ones that show Scott Lang’s journey in the MCU (so far). Paul Rudd’s title character was introduced back in his own solo film, Ant-Man (2015). From an ex-con, to a Baskin Robbins worker, in an attempt to patch up his relationship with his daughter, Cassie. As Scott’s tries to put his life back together, he finds Hank and Hope coming into it, after he steals a multi-million dollar suit which earns him the name, Ant-Man. Becoming an up and coming, inexperienced, miniature superhero, Ant-Man must use his new quantum skills to prevent Darren Cross, now Yellowjacket, from creating a powerful weapon used for evil. He then became an unofficial Avenger as he fought aside Captain America illegally in Germany in Captain America: Civil War (2016). Scott suited up once again in his second solo film, Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), this time with a new partner, The Wasp, while facing the repercussions of Civil War by being under house arrest. Not only is he running from the law and the FBI (Agent Jimmy Woo), but also the phasing villain they can’t see coming (Ghost). The end credit scene from Ant-Man and the Wasp setup Scott’s major role in Avengers: Endgame (2019), after accidentally getting trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years (even though it felt like five hours to him), Scott suggested the quantum physics theory to The Avengers, about trying to bring back everyone from The Blip using quantum time travel. This move and film cements Scott’s position in the Avengers lineup. Avengers: Endgame was the last fans saw of Scott Lang… until now… 

If fans want a quick recap of the most essential moments in the Ant-Man films, Marvel has released shorts of Ant-Man, The Wasp, and Hank & Janet, in an attempt to provide a refresher for fans. Disney+ has almost thirty Marvel Legends shorts streaming right now!! 

“For All Time. Always.” Meet He Who Remains  

There is one more major project that not only plays into the Quantumania storyline but the MCU as we know. The Disney+ original series, Loki, revealed Jonathan Majors as Marvel’s new big bad, He Who Remains (the first Kang variant introduced in the MCU). With variants and branching timelines being a recurring topic, the finale of Loki perfectly explains everything going on in the MCU (Phase Four, Phase Five, and Phase Six) as well as He Who Remains’ origin. In the Loki season one finale, “For All Time. Always”, what are the most important aspects to take away from He Who Remains?? Before anything, you must know that He Who Remains, is the man who “created all and controls all”, meaning not only did he have an impression on Loki and Slyvie’s “journey into mystery” but the MCU as a whole. Basically, everything that happened from Phase One to Phase Three in the MCU, has been “planned out” by He Who Remains. He introduced himself by saying, “I’ve been dubbed many names by many people. A ruler, a conqueror… He Who Remains, a jerk. But it’s… it’s not as simple as a name.” He expresses in the finale that He Who Remains is in fact a variant of a greater, more powerful, dangerous man. “I know it all. And I’ve seen it all.” (A recurring theme that will be mentioned quite a lot in the Multiverse Saga, most recently Quantumania.) He Who Remains then explains the enforcement of the TVA and without them “everything burns.” The most important information He Who Remains gives us is when he shares his origin story. He starts by explaining that a variant of himself, was a scientist in the 31st century, discovered that there were multiple other universes stacked on top of each other. As the universes collided, the peacefulness of the variants sharing their knowledge and technology from their universe, gave way creating a war, fighting for total control and power. “Not every version of me was so… so pure of heart. To some of us, new worlds meant only one thing- new lands to be conquered.” He Who Remains created his weapon, Aloith (seen in Loki), to end the multiversal war between Kangs. The TVA was created specifically to stop such chaos from ensuing again. “I keep you safe. And if you think I’m evil… just wait until you meet my variants.” Before expiring, He Who Remains eerily says, “See you soon.” Leaving fans with these three words and a wink subtly paved the way for future MCU projects that will involve Kang. The season finale ends with Loki heartbreakingly running up to Mobius to say, “Someone is coming. Countless different versions of a very dangerous person. And they’re all set on war. We need to prepare.” Marvel fans indeed need to prepare. Prepare to enter a new dynasty. The Kang Dynasty. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Cast

The returning cast includes Paul Rudd as the title character of Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man as well as Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne AKA The Wasp. Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer reprised their roles as Hank Pym, who is the original Ant-Man, and Janet Van Dyne, who is also the original Wasp but during a fatal mission sacrificed herself for her husband, Hank, leaving her lost in the Quantum Realm for years up until Scott, Hank, and Hope were able to save her in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Jonathan Majors stunned fans with his unusual role in Loki as the man behind the curtain or just the man who revealed he has planned everything that has ever happened in the Infinity Saga, even scripted the story (meaning everything that has happened in any Marvel movie or project since 2008 was all part of his so-called plan). He Who Remains was just the start of Kang’s Dynasty, he even stated in Loki, “I’ll see you soon.” And guess what?? He’s back and badder than ever. But this time, he is back as a new vanished Kang variant, Kang the Conqueror (the new baddie of the MCU) in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Some new faces joined the MCU with Kathryn Newton taking on the role as Cassie Lang after Emma Fuhrmann (actress who portrayed Cassie in Avengers: Endgame) was recast. As seen in Avengers: Endgame, during the five years of The Blip, Cassie grew up… and Scott missed most of her childhood being stuck in the Quantum Realm for five years (but for him it felt like five hours). Fan-favorite Randall Park made a subtle cameo as Jimmy Woo (seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp and WandaVision). Corey Stoll made a surprise comeback as Darren Cross, who was last seen in Ant-Man as the main antagonist, Yellowjacket, but this time with a new look and alias, MODOK. Additional cast includes Bill Murray (Lord Krylar), William Jackson Harper (Quaz), and David Dastmalchian as the voice of Veb. Fans were quite saddened by the absence of some previous characters from Ant-Man, who played a huge role in Scott’s life, like Judy Greer, Bobby Cannavale, Wood Harris, and especially Luis’ crazy stories (Michael Peña). 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Review (covered by Val Kohan)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was one of the most anticipated movies of 2023, as it was the first Marvel movie to kick off Phase Five. Some fans were not pleased with Phase Four due to the “lack of focus, tighter budget, disconnective narratives” but most importantly, “the loss of the most important characters” (according to Screen Rant). So, where does Marvel stand Post-Endgame?? With fans highly divided over Phase Four, fans had high expectations with Quantumania starting off Phase Five. However, it’s not looking too good for Marvel right now because Quantumania stands as the lowest rated Marvel movie on Rotten Tomatoes with a 47% rotten (though the rating is tied with Eternals). This film is receiving hate because of fans and Marvel for all the wrong reasons. Ever since the release of Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and worst of all, Endgame, many non-comic books readers jumped on the Marvel bandwagon. Personally, I think this is what will lead to Marvel’s downfall. The original Marvel films like Fantastic Four, DareDevil, Blade, and especially Iron Man, were strictly made for die-hard comic book fans and readers. So Marvel could bring in some of the most obscure concepts that comic fans instantly recognized. But now that Marvel is annoyingly overrated, the company is trying to draw in the general public who have no background knowledge to anything remotely comic related. Fans think that in order to have a successful film they have to incorporate cameos of some sorts to make them worth watching, which isn’t the case. Something that has spoiled Marvel and comic book movies as we know it was in fact Endgame. After such a film, all fans have heightened their standards so that all movies are “Endgame level.” Fans expect movies to be like Endgame but something people don’t seem to understand is what made Endgame such a successful and nostalgic movie were the 20 films that led up to it. All the films in Phase Four are leading up to Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars (the end of the Multiverse Saga). 

I must say Quantumania was a great leap from Scott’s Ant-Man from previous films, everyone seems to be so hypercritical of the film, but it’s on par with the other Ant-Man films. Some things that make it slightly different from the previous films had to be the absence of Scott’s friends, Dave, Kurt, and especially Luis. It is understandable that a majority of the movie took place in the Quantum Realm (it is called Quantumania for a reason). But for Marvel to include a Jimmy Woo cameo for a split second, they could have at least added Luis, since his stories were the highlights of Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. My biggest complaint though had to be one thing that took away from the other Ant-Man films. One of the coolest things about the Ant-Man films and what made it so unique from other Marvel movies, was the recontextualized scale of everyday objects like the Thomas the Train (Ant-Man) or the Hello Kitty Pez (Ant-Man and the Wasp), but my favorite were Hank Pym’s Hot Wheels (Ant-Man and the Wasp). However, Quantumania made the scale of everything meaningless by changing the environment drastically. The Quantum Realm was too abstract for no reason which made shrinking and growing have no impact. 

The CGI was questionable in certain landscape scenes, which Marvel used virtual sets (created for The Mandalorian) over green screen but a majority of the movie looked as if it were CG. That ultimately takes away from movie making. This has been an issue in much more recent Marvel projects, most notably She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Marvel is quantity over quality now. They’re trying to produce more projects in such menial time and aren’t really concerned with the script or CGI quality. Though the script was a bit immature, certain cheap jokes were actually quite funny. Ant-Man films are expected to be comedic because of the great Paul Rudd, but some of the dialogue just lacked and certain storylines felt out of place. I do wish we saw more of Wasp as she is half of the title character, was she wasteful?? I would say Marvel didn’t use her to see her full potential, we’ve only truly seen Hope as The Wasp for Ant-Man and Wasp and Avengers: Endgame. Hope and Scott barely had any scenes together which was exasperating. 

Overall, Quantumania was a mediocre film as a whole in the Marvel universe but is a laugh out loud, family friendly comedy by itself. I do believe that fans of the previous Ant-Man films should see Quantumania, as it was an enjoyable film and solid start to Phase Five. The reviews and critiques that are absolutely bombing it do not account for what the movie actually was. This is by far a much better Marvel film than most of the newer projects post-Endgame. Though many have described the third Ant-Man film as “underwhelming” or “forgettable”, Marvel seems to be in an interesting holding pattern. There have been several Marvel projects since Endgame, but none of them have had a constant storyline that makes them connect. The only thing that has been concrete is what to expect where the universe is heading. It is all leading to Kang… One thing is for certain, we will see Kang, lots and lots of variants of Kang. “A ruler, a conqueror… He Who Remains, a jerk. But it’s… it’s not as simple as a name.” 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is exclusively in theaters now!!