It can be tough to live up to the epic standards set by other MCU movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and director Peyton Reed is fully aware his two previous Ant-Man films may not reach that same dramatic weight, but he is hoping to change that with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
The second sequel will see the return of Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, along with an adult Cassie Lang -- now played by Kathryn Newton -- as they embark on an adventure through the Quantum Realm and come into contact with Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror.
Kicking off phase five, Reed hopes the trilogy-ending film will be the epic Ant-Man film fans have been craving. "People felt like, Oh, these are fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic Avengers movie," Reed told Entertainment Weekly. "For this third one, I said, 'I don't want to be the palate cleanser anymore. I want to be the big Avengers movie.'"
Reed added that he wanted to explore more of Scott and Cassie's relationship, since Cassie has grown up during her father's absence. "One of the single most intriguing things that I was excited to do in this movie was progress the Scott-Cassie relationship," Reed said. "It's been central to all the Ant-Man movies, the big difference here being that, as a result of Endgame, Cassie is now a young woman. She has become a scientific mind in her own right. She's been going through Hank Pym's old journals and notebooks, and has really latched on to this idea of quantum science and quantum technology."
Another big reason for the upcoming film's increased scale is due to the Quantum Realm, a place explored very little in the previous two films. "In the first one, we introduced the idea of the Quantum Realm, we kind of dipped our toe into it, and then even more so in the second one," Reed said. "But we obviously left a lot of unanswered questions. We wanted to go in a different direction, and create an epic movie where the bulk of it takes place in the Quantum Realm. For me, it was really exciting, because the other two films take place in San Francisco, and this one, we were creating this incredibly complex subatomic world, and all the environments and ecosystems and creatures and beings that inhabit that world."
Another reason for the upped dramatic weight is, of course, Kang, a villain that is looking to make an impact not only on Scott and other Ant-Man characters, but on the wider MCU as well. The character is already confirmed to return for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and will very likely star in Avengers: Secret Wars, as Reed even teased how bigger of a threat Kang will be than Thanos.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives in theaters on February 17, 2023.
Source: Entertainment Weekly