Peyton Reed, the director of the MCU Ant-Man trilogy, is done joking around. He has stories to tell and these stories cannot be deconstructed into comedic respites. Rather, the director wanted to go big with his threequel and wasn’t afraid to ask for a bigger challenge — with multiple villains at once and an entire realm filled and ruled by evil.
With Phase Four now officially over, the time for leisurely narrative is done. As Scott Lang and his family take on the big bad in the quantum realm, the director opens up ahead of the new year to shed some light on the process that went into the making of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Peyton Reed Wants to Go Big or Go Home With Ant-Man 3
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania brings in numerous threats and veteran stars in a refreshing take on the tiniest Avenger’s otherwise fun-filled family adventure story. With the threequel going all in on the superhero’s latest outing, Peyton Reed makes sure that the kickoff to the saga of the Kang Dynasty begins with a narrative as equally impressive and intimidating as the tone of the coming multiversal war presents.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director claims,
“I metaphorically kicked in Kevin Feige’s door. People felt like, Oh, these are fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic Avengers movie. For this third one, I said, ‘I don’t want to be the palate cleanser anymore. I want to be the big Avengers movie.’
I grew up a real Marvel comics nerd, and there are a handful of antagonists in the Marvel comics universe who are all-timers. Loki, obviously. Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four. And Kang the Conqueror. In conversations with Kevin Feige and Marvel, it was like, I want to put Ant-Man and Wasp up against a really formidable villain in this movie, and so we’re doing Kang the Conqueror.”
Ant-Man Goes Up Against Kang in Peyton Reed’s Threequel
Paul Rudd‘s superhero debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with Ant-Man in 2015, quickly followed by Captain America: Civil War, thus setting the tiny hero on a path to becoming a part of the Earth’s first line of defense against intergalactic threats. However, shrinking down to an atomic size comes with its own problems, one of which includes the quantum realm and all its unexplored threats.
The threequel witnesses Scott Lang teaming up with Hope Van Dyne, Cassie Lang, Hank Pym, and Janet Van Dyne in their travel across the uncharted territory of the quantum realm, coming across formidable foes, especially Kang the Conqueror, which then kickstarts the Phase Five and Six of the Multiverse Saga. Of his primary antagonist, Reed says:
“In the comics, Kang has dominion over time, he’s a time traveler. His situation is a little bit different in this movie, which I won’t spoil for you, but he’s someone who, [while] we live very linear lives, from childhood to death, Kang doesn’t exist that way. It struck me as interesting to take the tiniest Avengers — in some people’s minds maybe the least powerful Avengers — and put them up against the most powerful force in the multiverse.”
Ant-Man 3 is also set to introduce veteran actor and Hollywood treasure, Bill Murray in a secondary antagonist role. Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer reprise their roles as the titular superheroes, while Kathryn Newton joins the roster as Cassie Lang. Jonathan Majors makes his first big appearance as Kang after his short yet memorable debut as He Who Remains in the finale of Loki Season 1.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania premieres on 17 February 2023.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
