Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania infiltrated the theaters early this year and yet again highlighted the all too familiar trend of star-laden Marvel and DC superhero movies failing to make the just use of everyone’s talent.
The third stand-alone movie on Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang shows Ant-Man and the Wasp exploring the Quantum Realm and interacting with strange new creatures. As they move further into their exploration journey, they are stunned by discovery, and the adventure that pushes them beyond the limits ends up threatening their own existence.
Such was the performance of the movie at the box office (a meager $476 million by Marvel standards) that it won’t surprise many if it also threatens the future of Ant-Man’s next stand-alone movies.
Why Paul Rudd and Jonathan Majors’ Ant-Man 3 Flopped
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was supposed to be the movie that opened doors to Phase 5 in style by introducing new angles and characters for the next Marvel Cinematic Universe projects in line. It did that a bit by bringing Kang the Conqueror to the big screen for the first time, but their seemingly half-hearted attempt left everyone in limbo.
Firstly, considering we have reached the third installment of Ant-Man, one would fairly expect to see some solid character development of existing stars. No such thing happens with either Paul Rudd‘s Scott or Evangeline Lilly, and even his relationship dynamics with his daughter Cassandra Lang remain tangled.
The way Jonathan Majors‘ Kang is introduced is no better. He’s discovered by Scott and the Ant family being trapped in the Quantum Realm. Quantum Kang lands there after being exiled for his attempts to end the Council of Kangs.
One of the most violent villains of the MCU – as Loki would attest – and a master combat neither manages to kill any major character nor dominates Ant-Man during a fight-off. The way such a hyped character gets sucked into oblivion and is seemingly killed doesn’t paint a very scary picture for Kang’s enemies.
Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man 3 Made a Big Mistake With William Jackson Harper
As we mentioned at the very beginning, mega franchises like the MCU frequently do a disservice to the brilliant casting decisions by failing to give some interesting actors their apt space in the movies.
While there are plenty of complaints as to how Majors’ Kang made his big screen debut with Ant-Man 3, at least he got enough attention. Rather, some fans are unhappy with the way the decision to cast the very talented William Jackson Harper was wasted in the movie.
Harper played the character of Quaz, a telepathic member of the Freedom Fighters.
Everyone always talks about actors getting wasted in the MCU… this is definitely the worst offender https://t.co/NS7cuyHRzk
— Nicholas (@NicholasPas5) September 1, 2023
Honestly the only other worse one was Chris Eccleston because not only was he wasted but also mistreated and that dude deserves more respect than anyone else on the planet.
— Steph (@IHNTblah) September 1, 2023
100% up there. Great actor, horrible role
— Chedu 🍜 (@Navxrroo) September 1, 2023
Christian Bale’s Gorr is the biggest waste in the mcu imo. He was literally the only good thing in that movie
— 🙂Biccy🙃 (@Biccy22) September 1, 2023
Wasted role on a fantastic actor
— Nnamdi #RipEwoks4UBI 🕊️📚🍎♿🇳🇬 (@DHotwheelz) August 31, 2023
He was not utilised properly.
— Dr Shaayer (@dr_shaayer) September 1, 2023
The only thing we come to know through the movie is that Quaz’s The Freedom Fighters are a guerrilla group of inhabitants in the Quantum Realm displaced by Kang the Conqueror. All we can do is hope that this dynamic between Quaz’s group and Kang will be explored in detail in the MCU.
Source: X
