Ant Man Quantumania has started filming, but we’ll be waiting a while to see the return of Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne.
In October 2021, Marvel shuffled the upcoming release dates of almost every upcoming Phase 4 movie, with the threequel pushed back from February 2023 to July 2023. But at least we know the trippy title: Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
What does it mean? Who knows, but Evangeline Lilly has high hopes for the third movie. “I was so stoked on the script [by Jeff Loveness],” she enthused. “I actually think it has the chance to be the best one we’ve done yet.”
Back in November 2019, it was reported that the third movie was in development with Peyton Reed back as director along with Paul Rudd and Lilly reprising their roles as Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne.
We had to wait until December 2020, however, for Marvel to officially announce the threequel and the returning cast, along with confirmation of a very exciting villain that Ant-Man and The Wasp will be battling in their third outing.
But who is it and why is it so significant? Read on to find out everything you need to know about Ant-Man 3.
Ant Man Quantumania cast?
As mentioned above, Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly are officially back as Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, and Hope van Dyne, aka The Wasp.
They’ll be joined by fellow returning cast members Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer as Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, respectively, and Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang is also back, but won’t be played by Avengers: Endgame‘s Emma Fuhrmann.
Instead, Big Little Lies and The Society star Kathryn Newton will take over the role of Cassie Lang for the third movie.
Comic book fans will know Cassie becomes a superhero herself in the form of Stature, and Newton appeared to confirm that the MCU’s version of Cassie will have a superheroic future in store.
“I’m going to do my best to be the best superhero of all time,” she teased.
Fuhrmann doesn’t appear to hold any grudges at her Endgame role being recast for the third Ant-Man movie as she thanked fans for their “kind messages” after the news was confirmed in December 2020.
“Thank you for all your support. It has meant the world to me. I was as sad as you all were to hear the news Thursday. I can only hope that this means there is something else for me in the future of the MCU,” she wrote.
“I will always be grateful to have been a part of the MCU & the biggest movie of all time. Being an actress is still my #1 passion & I look forward to what the future holds.”
Newton won’t be the only new cast member as it’s also been confirmed that Lovecraft Country‘s Jonathan Majors will be playing Kang the Conqueror, after his involvement was first rumoured in September 2020.
Majors actually ended up making his MCU debut in the season finale of Loki where he wasn’t officially Kang, but He Who Remains. How does that connect to the threequel? We’ve got you covered here.
When it was initially reported, we knew that Majors would appear in other MCU projects, setting up the possibility that he’s the next Thanos and also could herald the (now-confirmed) arrival of the Fantastic Four in the MCU.
Unfortunately, that’s it for confirmed cast members for now, and unless they’re playing it close to the chest, David Dastmalchian and Judy Greer don’t think they’re coming back for the new movie as Kurt and Scott’s ex-wife Maggie, respectively.
If Greer isn’t back, it makes sense that Bobby Cannavale isn’t sure if he’ll return as Maggie’s new husband Jim Paxton. He said in November 2020 that he wasn’t 100% sure he’ll be back.
Randall Park reprised his Ant-Man and The Wasp role as Agent Jimmy Woo in WandaVision, but admitted he hadn’t “gotten the call” for Ant-Man 3 as of February 2021. He did add that he would return if asked though.
One Ant-Man regular who won’t be back is Tip ‘TI’ Harris as Scott’s friend Dave.
It follows reports (via The New York Times) that TI and his wife Tiny are facing accusations of sexual abuse from a number of women, though it remains unclear whether the Ant-Man 3 decision is related to these allegations.
The couple is also facing accusations of kidnapping, false imprisonment, assault, harassment, intimidation and the forced ingestion of illegal drugs – but both strenuously deny all of the allegations.
Director Peyton Reed also hasn’t ruled out a potential return for Walter Goggins as villain Sonny Burch: “There’s always a chance.”
Talking of villains, we could be seeing Corey Stoll back as Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket, despite his supposed death in the first movie. Lilly tagged a photo of the script in May 2021 with Stoll’s name, alongside confirmed cast members.
It could just be wishful thinking, but Marvel fans also think Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy has joined the MCU too as he was spotted in London with Rudd in August 2021. Levy might just have been having dinner with a friend, but the movie was filming then…
Behind the scenes, Rick and Morty writer Jeff Loveness has signed on to write the script, but it’s not yet clear if Paul Rudd will be involved in the writing stage as he was with both previous movies.
Ant Man Quantumania release date?
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will hit cinemas on July 28, 2023 after being moved back from its February 17, 2023 release, which will now be when The Marvels will be released.
Filming officially started in July 2021 in England, with Rudd revealing he was already in London in June to prepare for filming. It’s expected to continue until early 2022.
Ant Man Quantumania plot: Who is the villain ?
The confirmed arrival of Kang likely means he’s the main villain of the third movie, but Marvel could always throw a curveball and have him introduced in the movie without being the main threat.
Right now, we don’t have any official plot details for the third movie, but the “Quantumania” title confirms we’ll be returning to the Quantum Realm which has played a significant role in both previous Ant-Man movies.
There was an Easter egg pointing to the arrival of Kang in Ant-Man and The Wasp when Chronopolis – the city he reigns over in the comics – was spotted in the Quantum Realm, so it could be where he comes from in the MCU too.
As we mentioned above about Cassie Lang, she’s seemingly got a bigger role in the threequel and it could be we see the origin of Cassie becoming Stature, one of the founding members of the Young Avengers.
And just because Kang is involved in the movie, that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see the return of Sonny Burch as he seeks his revenge. But could the sequel have also hidden a future villain in plain sight?
As part of Ghost’s backstory, it was revealed that her father was none other than Elihas Starr. He was seemingly killed off during a quantum experiment that caused Ghost’s state, yet that doesn’t necessarily rule out a comeback.
In the comics, Elihas Starr is the long-time foe of Ant-Man – a criminal genius known as ‘Egghead’, although Ant-Man and The Wasp didn’t force actor Michael Cerveris to wear a pointy prosthetic headpiece for the role.
Given that the MCU’s world has changed dramatically since Avengers: Endgame, we think it’s unlikely that Egghead will make an appearance and it’s more likely that Ant-Man 3 will look more to the future (hello Young Avengers) than the past.
But you just never know.
We don’t really know too much about what else to expect in the third movie, other than the fact that Scott and Hope will continue to be joint leads, like in the sequel.
“They’re a partnership, and she’s a very, very important part of that,” Reed explained. “And that was a very gratifying thing, I guess technically we were the first Marvel movie with a female hero in the title of the movie.”
Maybe we’ll finally get an answer to what happened to those missing Pym Particles from the first movie too, and what happened to Ghost after the events of the sequel.
Ant Man Quantumania trailer: Any Quantumania footage yet?
Even though filming has started, we imagine it’ll be a while before we see anything from the movie.
Potentially we could get a trailer at Comic-Con 2022, as long as Marvel returns to the event that it’s skipped over the two recent virtual events. But right now, we don’t have anything for you, unfortunately.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is set for release on July 28, 2023.
