The first two Ant-Man movies aren’t perfect, but they’ve worked because of the great balance between comedy and action sequences, and because they’ve focused on the heroes’ personalities. Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, however, is posed to tell a much larger story, and that could overshadow what made the previous two installments a success.
Ant-Man is one of the funniest Marvel properties, even in a world where all the MCU characters get their quips. Paul Rudd’s background is in comedy, and his perfect comedic timing helped make the original Ant-Man more than, perhaps, people expected of it. This trend continued in Ant-Man And The Wasp, a hilarious movie that still manages to focus on characterization, particularly Hope’s, as she gets to truly step in as co-lead. Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, however, is asking the franchise to do a lot more than be funny and focus on their own characters. Not just that, the movie also has a lot more characters to deal with.
The movies started focusing on Scott Lang, his backstory, and his struggles, with Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne as supporting characters. In Ant-Man and The Wasp, however, the franchise focused much more on Hope’s backstory and feelings, as she fully embraces her role as The Wasp. The second movie also places much more of a spotlight on the romantic relationship between Hope and Scott, who remain, to this day, one of the few stable MCU couples. The MCU has, after all, not been kind to couples – Tony Stark and Vision can attest to this. But Ant-Man and the Wasp also, in the process of giving Hope more depth, focuses more on both her relationship with her father, Hank Pym – which the first movie, had already explored, but also her mother, Janet van Dyne.
With Janet alive and well at the end of Ant-Man and The Wasp, and throughout Avengers: Endgame, she becomes another core character integral to the franchise that could still use more development. Not to mention Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania has a chance to focus a little more on the romance between Hank and Janet, a romance the MCU has only gotten to show glimpses of before. That would be enough if that were the only things the movie has to touch upon, but there’s also the matter of the ramifications of Avengers: Endgame, which the movie is sure to touch upon. The recasting of the role of Cassie Lang is a big red flag that Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania will deal with Scott and Cassie finding new ground in their relationship, after that Avengers: Endgame time-jump.
Not only that, with Marvel seemingly setting up the Young Avengers, Cassie becomes even more important. A superhero in her own right in the comics, Cassie Lang has been a pretty consistent member of the team in the last few years, and it would be strange to leave her out, considering she’s already part of the MCU. This means Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania has to juggle all these character journeys, set up Cassie to get powers of her own, balance two romances, and also attempt to tell a much bigger story than the first two movies. Because the one big casting that has already been announced for this third movie in the Ant-Man franchise is precisely the kind of character that is sure to shape the future of the MCU going forward: Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror.
That’s a lot to juggle for a franchise that has succeeded by telling smaller-scale stories that have helped heighten the more comedic elements of storylines they’re dealing with. The reason fans have invested in the core group of characters the Ant-Man movies have introduced has been that they've related to the heroes. It’s hard to envision a way a movie that is attempting to tell such big-picture stories that they’re bringing in Kang the Conqueror managing to keep the balance between the comedic and the action sequences fans have grown accustomed too. It’s also hard to imagine they can do all of that without overshadowing the heroes’ personalities.
But it’s hard to count out Marvel completely, especially after Disney+ had given fans arguably two outstanding shows and another one that was entertaining enough to warrant the weekly viewing. The MCU has been providing memorable characters for over a decade, and though not all of its attempts have been a home run, chances are this movie will still be entertaining, no matter what. But with the Ant-Man movies some of the best examples within the universe of the balance between good action, heartfelt character journeys and comedy, it would be a shame if the third movie in the franchise wouldn’t deliver on what the movies have gotten us accustomed to. Fans aren’t asking for much, after all. What the movies did before, plus a little more plot would be fine with us.
Kang the Conqueror, Cassie Lang’s hero journey, all of those can be stories for later. The MCU has been very good at using some of its known properties to set up future ones. Sometimes that can be frustrating for fans who want the full story right away. In this case, however, the best thing for Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, would be for it to remain similar in tone to the previous two movies, and leave the big picture stuff to be dealt with later.