With two ‘Ant-Man’ movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe bank, and the third’s premiere vastly approaching with ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, the central core to this series in particular has remained the same. Or so, that’s how director Peyton Reed sees it.
“The Ant-Man movies have really always been about family. It is a generational story about a family of heroes: Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is not a billionaire or super scientist and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) is the legacy daughter of two superheroes… it’s a generational thing,” explains Reed at a global press conference for the film.
The director continued: “And then there’s Cassie Lang, who is probably Scott’s biggest motivational factor. And for his daughter, he wants to be this hero and avenger…but it’s really about the work/life balance, and finding time with his daughter is the most important thing.”
Cassie Lang in the threequel film is played by Kathryn Newton, and she’s not the little girl anymore who was terrified of The Yellowjacket in her room, she now stands up for what she believes in as a young adult and even spends some time in jail for doing so. And she feels strongly about helping others, even down in the Quantum Realm.
Newton spoke during the press conference about her first introduction to Marvel Studios films—’Iron Man’ when she was eight years old—and how ever since, she wanted to be “the biggest superhero Marvel has ever seen.” Coincidentally, Cassie Lang can grow to be 40 feet when wearing her suit.
That and much more happens while down in the Quantum Realm. This new world is where most of the third film takes place, and space and time act very differently there. Reed says the team behind creating the Realm worked for three and a half years and took notes from ‘Sword and Sorcery’ and ‘Morbius’ among other pop culture points to help with the feel.
“We want to create this very vivid world that has its own internal history and internal logic,” Reed explained. “And, you know, who are the creatures there? And who are the people there? And how do you travel? What are the laws of physics? All these things needed to be figured out.”
Through Janet Van Dyne, aka the original Wasp, aka Michelle Pfeiffer, the Langs and Van Dyne’s see what this world is all about. Janet spent 30 years in the Quantum Realm, and she knows how to maneuver through its many inhabitants. One of whom is Kang the Conquerer, played by Jonathan Majors.
“Who is Kang? That is a question we will all be answering for a long time,” says Majors. In short, the super-villain travels through time and is a Nexus Being. He has multiple versions of himself in different universes and multi-verses, and virtually all different beings throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The one we meet in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ has been stranded in the Quantum Realm and is doing what he does best—conquering all who come in his path.
For Majors, playing into the different versions of Kang (including the one we saw with the Marvel series ‘Loki,’) means looking at the director, sometimes producers, and especially, who plays opposite of him.
“As an antagonist, we’re following our heroes. In this case, I have a few to look at and break down. I look at them and I figure out okay, you can’t go against somebody if you don’t know who they are and if you don’t know what’s the opposite of them and what their hopes and dreams are,” Majors continues. “My objective is to do that, to antagonize to get what I need and fulfill my life and my dreams.”
That rang true for Tom Hiddleston as Loki, and Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and his compatriots. At the timeline of this film, the results of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ have already come into play and Lang is doing somewhat of a victory lap having written a book and looking to spend time with his daughter. And in returning to the role of Scott Lang again, even though much has happened for the character, Rudd still enjoys the core of who Lang is as a normal guy doing some pretty extraordinary stuff.
“I think what I like most about [Scott] is that he’s a regular guy and has reservations about all of this still. He’s just a dad. I like the fact that he is a part of this group with pretty impressive people and superheroes and that he would be the first guy to say what the hell am I doing here? It makes no sense at all—he’s a real person,” Rudd explains. “You want to play as an actor someone who’s relatable and hopefully a sympathetic person and somebody that you understand what they’re going through.”
The juxtaposition with Scott Lang—along with Janet, Hope, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Cassie—against Kang who Kevin Feige (President of Marvel Studios) says might be the biggest villain the MCU has ever seen, is what the Ant-Man franchise is really all about.
“Who better to face off against one of, if not the biggest villain the MCU has ever seen than this family who you might think could not handle it?” he asks.
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ also sees the return of Corey Stoll (though we won’t say much more for spoiler purposes,) and some new faces sprinkled throughout the story such as Bill Murray, William Jackson Harper, Katy M O’Brian and more.
It also enters the MCU into its “Phase 5.”
“Phase Four, as I said, was about introducing a lot of new characters and new heroes to the world,” Feige finishes. “We want to go kick off Phase Five with a third film of characters that were already beloved, which [the Ant-Man] team certainly is.”
‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘ hits theaters Feb. 17.
