Marvel ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Trailer Is Full Of Big Reveals

Marvel Studios finally unveiled the first trailer for director Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and it’s full of big reveals about the MCU’s Quantum Realm and the role it will play f0r Marvel’s superheroes going forward. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania stars franchise returning cast members Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Michael Douglas, with Jonathan Majors joining as the film’s (and MCU’s latest overarching) villain.

Little is known about the sequel to 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, as the studio has guarded its secrets well. That said, the trailer offers our first glimpse at what’s to come in the rest of Marvel’s Phase Four and beyond.

But before we dig down into the finer points, take a look at the gloriously vibrant, crazy-quilt world that’s shaping up in the super-sized sequel…

This is the most visually impressive and large-scale Ant-Man movie yet (you’ll have to excuse the puns, and yes there will be more so just accept it). Reed has crafted a film that looks like it could set comfortably alongside the Star Wars franchise, with all manner of strange worlds, creatures, and technology on display.

We get our first good look at Majors in full costume and character as Kang the Conqueror, a time-hopping villain who was first introduced in the Disney+ Marvel series Loki. Kang will play a major (see? puns galore, dear readers!) role in the MCU to come, including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, among others.

We also see that Rudd’s on-screen daughter Cassandra Lang, played by Kathryn Newton, will join her dad (Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man) and the rest of the “team” — including Lilly’s Hope van Dyne aka Wasp, Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne, and Douglas’ Hank Pym — as they (accidentally) enter the Quantum Realm and become trapped in an expansive but microscopic world of danger and adventure.

The Quantum Realm in the MCU is a subatomic level of reality in which time and space warp and intersect with other universes and energies. It’s what makes travel across the Multiverse possible, and is how the Avengers achieved time travel to save the world and the universe in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. So far, however, we’ve seen little of the Quantum Realm itself, as nobody has fully explored it yet… nobody, that is, except Hope van Dyne, who was trapped there for decades of our time and who knows secrets she clearly hasn’t yet shared with anybody else — including, presumably, the existence of Kang himself and whatever knowledge or plans he is about to unleash.

To speak further about the trailer and what might be happening with the characters and broader potential for the MCU, I have to discuss some elements from the comics that serve as inspiration for the films, and that means certain bits of information could be spoilerish, so this is your spoiler warning — don’t read further if you’re trying to avoid knowing anything that might tip you off about what’s to come!

So, if you’re still here, let’s look at a few sidebars about Kang and the Marvel Comics source material that informs these movies…

A little-known fact to non-comic readers is the fact Kang is a future relative of none other than Fantastic Four villain Victor von Doom, aka Doctor Doom. So there is a non-zero chance Majors’ role will include setting the stage for the introduction of that villain — who, by the way, also plays a huge role in the comic book source material that inspires the upcoming Secret Wars movie.

We know Marvel is developing their Fantastic Four film for release in 2026 as part of their Phase Six, with director Matt Shakman at the helm. Shakman previously directred Marvel’s WandaVision series on Disney+. And this year’s Marvel sequel movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness saw the appearance of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic as portrayed by John Krasinski. Whether Krasinski will reprise the role or was a one-shot appearance as an alternate universe version of the character remains to be seen, but the point is the studio has been slowly but steadily building toward their Fantastic Four, and it’s possible Kang’s overarching role in Phase Four of the MCU could translate into also setting the stage for the arrival of Dr. Doom — possibly played by Majors? Time will tell…

Okay, now let’s get back to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and the new trailer. Has Kang been trapped down in the Quantum Realm? Doubtful, since from the Loki series we know he’s been traipsing across time already. But that’s the thing about time, isn’t it? Perhaps he has been moving around the Multiverse and time-traveling, but that doesn’t mean the version of him we see in this film has done so yet. His existence within the Quantum Realm could be at a point in his own timeline before he escapes and is able to use it for his devious plots.

On the other hand, perhaps the Quantum Realm is where Kang resides when he’s in between excursions through the Multiverse, using it as a sort of way station outside of the regular flow of space-time and as a convenient spot from which to take any number of alternate roads into different versions of reality at different points in history.

That’s the fun thing about all of this — the potential and meanings are endless, limited only by the imagination of the storytellers. Which makes it a good thing Reed is in the director’s chair, and that Jeff Loveness handled scripting duties, because their work demonstrates limitless imagination.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania debuts in theaters on Feburary 17th, 2023, and looks to unleash a shockwave that will change the shape of the MCU for years to come. It could be the weirdest and wildest Marvel movie yet, and I can’t wait to see more.