Up until now, the Ant-Man movies have largely served as a palette cleanser of sorts after the likes of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War. Ant-Man and The Wasp, for example, didn't even reference the traumatic events of that latter movie until a mid-credits scene which left Scott Lang trapped inside the Quantum Realm.
Despite the positioning of his solo adventures, Ant-Man has become a major player in the MCU, proving key to the likes of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.
According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, that's exactly why Scott and Hope Van Dyne are now being given the opportunity to set the tone for Phase 5. "We wanted to kick off Phase Five with Ant-Man because he’d earned that position," the executive tells Empire Online. "To not simply be the back-up or the comic relief, but to take his position at the front of the podium of the MCU."
That will see the Ant-Man family pitted against the MCU's new big bad, Kang the Conqueror. With Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania likely setting the stage for a number of upcoming projects, including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, director Peyton Reed says it was time to take Scott out of his comfort zone.
"We’re not running around the streets of San Francisco anymore," the filmmaker teases. "We’re fighting one of the most powerful villains in Marvel history, and maybe these are the most unlikely Avengers to be the first to go up against this guy."
Or, as writer Jeff Loveness puts it, "The first discussion we had was, ‘What if Ant-Man is accidentally in an Avengers movie by himself?"
This movie is going to be epic, and we're not convinced Ant-Man will live to fight another day after clashing with Kang! Either way, all signs point to the hero being put through the wringer, and we have a feeling the MCU will never be the same again.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania arrives in theaters on February 17.