What You Need to Know Before Watching Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Scott Lang

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) only wanted two things in life: to watch his daughter grow up and to make her proud by doing the right thing. Unfortunately, as he would learn time and time again, those two concepts did not always mix well. Scott was a modern-day Robin Hood and used his skills to steal millions from the corrupt organization VistaCorp and give the money to the people the company had scammed. Scott was caught for this, went to prison, and his wife Maggie divorced him.

Scott’s criminal record made it near impossible to get a legitimate job, pay child support, and earn the trust needed to get visitation rights for his daughter Cassie. Desperate, Scott’s criminal friends hooked him up with a job secretly set up by Hank Pym. Scott proved his skills by breaking into Hank’s home and stealing the Ant-Man suit. Eventually, Scott was recruited by Hank into stealing from Darren Cross.

With Hank teaching Scott how to use the Ant-Man tech and Hope Van Dyne teaching Scott how to fight better, this new Ant-Man ultimately defeated Cross (and had an awkward confrontation with Avengers member Falcon). In the aftermath, he started a relationship with Hope and became closer to both Maggie and her cop husband Jim.

Scott put his neck on the line to aid Captain America’s crew in the superhero Civil War. Though he certainly made a splash by revealing his Giant Man form, Scott was ultimately defeated and incarcerated in the Raft, a prison for superheroes. He spent several years under house arrest where he was able to hang out with Cassie, but both Hope and Hank were angry at him for his Civil War actions, as it put them on the run due to their association with him.

Even though it put his freedom at a great risk, Scott secretly helped Hope and Hank rescue Janet Van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. During this time, he was opposed by the villain Ghost, who was cursed with painful phasing powers. In the aftermath, Scott and the reunited Pym/Van Dyne family farmed the Quantum Realm for a specific kind of energy that would help keep Ghost stable. While Scott entered the Quantum Real, the Mad Titan Thanos used the Infinity Stones to snap away half of all life in the universe. Hank Pym, Janet Van Dyne, and Hope Van Dyne were all victims of this act and turned to dust.

Five years later, thanks to the random actions of a rat, Scott was released from the Quantum Realm. Finding that his daughter was alive (albeit older), Scott sought out what remained of the Avengers and revealed that to him, his time in the Quantum Realm was roughly five hours. Using his collection of Pym Particles and knowledge of the Quantum Realm, Scott was able to inspire the Avengers into understanding time travel so they could undergo a “Time Heist,” grab the Infinity Stones, and undo Thanos’ actions.