Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania continues Scott Lang's MCU journey. Picking up after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Scott wants to make up for the time he lost while stuck in the Quantum Realm. However, his family including his now teenage daughter Cassie Lang, are pulled into the Quantum Zone. As they try to figure out how to get back home, they discover a new threat: Kang the Conqueror.
Peyton Reed returns to direct the third installment in Ant-Man's trilogy, the second director after Jon Watts to direct three MCU films for the same hero. While the Quantum Realm has been an important part of these heroes' stories, this will be the first movie to fully explore the strange, amazing, and dangerous miniature universe. Ant-Man and the Wasp: kicks off Phase Five for Marvel and introduces the next major Avengers-level threat with Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror.
Screen Rant spoke with Peyton Reed about the third installment in the Ant-Man saga, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Reed discussed Scott's journey and how Cassie's family sets her apart from the other new Marvel heroes. After the film premieres, Reed will also shared how they came up with this version of MODOK and his potential future with Marvel Studios.
Peyton Reed on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Screen Rant: Amazing job on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It's somewhere I absolutely want to explore more of; it's so beautiful and vast. Is there a part of the Quantum Realm that you didn't get a chance to explore?
Peyton Reed: As we were deg all the different sections of the Quantum Realm, there were definitely some environments that we storywise just had to leave behind. But we had a team of insanely talented artists who were all working under Will Htay, our production designer, and they were tasked with bringing some of the most whacked-out science fiction conceits.
As we were writing the script, we were also working with these designers, so they would feed each other. They would bring us some characters; they could be freedom fighters. And , these [have] gotta be all different species and types of characters whose societies have been wiped out by Kang, and they banded together. So, this one is a little more steampunk. And this is a blobby character who looks like it's straight out of a Hanna Barbera cartoon. We wanted this really wide swath of design in the movie. No idea was too crazy.
That was an exhilarating thing, to have all these artists bring you this incredible artwork. I'm sure that, along the way, there were characters and environments that we just didn't have room for.
Cassie really grows into her own as a character in Quantumania. Can you talk about the driving force that sets her apart from other young heroes that we've been introduced to in the MCU?
Peyton Reed: Cassie Lang, as we've seen in all the Ant-Man movies, is Scott Lang's number one priority in life. He wants to be a good dad. In this movie, she's 18 as a result of what happened in Endgame. Scott's kind of still relating to her as a little girl, but she's a young woman now. And as a young woman, she has her own ideas of what it's like to be a hero, or what injustices in the world might need dealing with; her methods might be different than her dad’s.
She's also at an age where she's critical of her dad, but I think what sets her apart is that it's a family business. She's got Scott and Hope as a template, and she's got Janet and Hank as a template. And she happens to be embedded with a handful of genius, Quantum scientists and a couple who synthesized the original Pym particle. But she's just trying to figure it out, man. She's just trying to figure out how to be a good citizen of the world and what that means.
Clearly, she's gotten access to this technology and – we find out – a suit in this movie. But her arc is really that she's an idealist, but now she's plopped down into the middle of this war in the middle of the Quantum Realm, and her ideals are going to be put to the test. And that seems unique, I think, in the MCU in of these characters. She's part of the family business but hasn't quite figured it out yet.
I love that the driving force behind Scott's heroism is fatherhood. Why is that such an important part of Scott's core?
Peyton Reed: Well, I think it really speaks to Scott. I've always talked about Scott Lang as being the everyman of the MCU. He's not a brilliant scientist or a billionaire; he doesn't have any superpowers. It's all about him having access to the Pym particle technology. And I love that it's relatable.
I think that's what audiences love about Scott Lang, and it's what Paul plays so well. People have this movie relationship with Paul Rudd, where they feel like, "I'd like to hang out with that guy! I get him, and I think he would understand me." And he also reacts in these crazy situations the way that you or I would react if we were plopped down into a Marvel movie. I think that's part of the charm of it.
So, for me, to introduce that character and see that character grow throughout these three movies and the Avengers movie is really gratifying.
Jonathan Majors is terrifying as Kang; he is incredible in this film. Can you talk about working with him to create this version of Kang?
Peyton Reed: We knew that if we were going to make a third Ant-Man movie, we needed to pit our heroes against a really all-timer formidable antagonist. There are a handful in the Marvel Comics universe: there's Loki, Thanos, certainly; Dr. Doom; Galactus. But Kang the Conqueror is way up there. And it excited me to be the person who got to introduce Kang into the universe.
When I cast Jonathan in the role? That was it, man. I had my eye on Jonathan because he's been so good for so long. And he's having a moment now, right? But he takes it seriously. He's such a dedicated actor. He has the physicality that Kang needed. He's a conqueror.
But we talked so much about how this guy experienced his time in a loop, not in a straight line; how he's had all these different experiences, and what it’s like to hang out with someone like that. It's scary. And he just got all of that and just ran with it. And of course, for an actor to be able to play the guy, and then another guy and a guy who are variants? They're all technically Kangs, but they're all radically different characters.
I want to talk about MODOK because it's a character I've been anticipating for a while now in the MCU, and he's such a strange but fun character. What inspired his connection to the Ant-Fam in this film?
Peyton Reed: We talked a lot about, as we were developing the story, how MODOK has been waiting in the wings for a while. Stephen Broussard would know this better than me, but there have been conversations for other movies about, "Can MODOK fit in here? What would that look like in live-action?"
But then we hit on an idea as we were gonna bring our family into the Quantum Realm and in with Kang. How could Kang know about the Ant Family? And then it occurred to me, “What happens to Yellowjacket at the end of the first Ant-Man?” It dawned on me, and I pitched the idea to Stephen Broussard and then to Kevin and we ran with it. I calling Corey Stoll and talking to him about, "What if this happened?" And him giggling on the other line, like, "If you guys do that, I'm in." He loved it, because he's a comics nerd, too.
We were able to do it, and I'm thrilled. It's such a crazy, crazy thing to have in this movie.
I love the Ant-Man trilogy. I feel like it just gets better with every single movie. Ant-Man is one of those characters that just has the most heart in the MCU for me. Going forward, are you wanting to continue Ant-Man's journey, or do you want to work in another pocket of the MCU?
Peyton Reed: It's a good question. I'm a little superstitious, so it's hard to talk about the possibility of another one until the movie comes out. But I have loved working at Marvel and, again, there are other characters in that universe I love who maybe haven't been introduced into the MCU yet.
Listen, I would leave the door open for anything. I love working with Kevin and Stephen Broussard and everybody at Marvel. With Ant-Man, we've been doing this together for eight or nine years at this point, and it's a family. We've kind of all grown up with these heroes and put them out there, and it's really gratifying.
About Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
After defeating Thanos, Scott is ready to make up for the time he missed as a father, but before he has the chance, he, Hop Van Dyne, Janet Van Dyne, Hank Pym, and Cassie Lang are pulled into the mysterious Quantum Realm. Now, the family will need to navigate the Quantum Relam and its inhabitants, including a new threat, Kang the Conqueror, if they have any chance of returning home.
Check out our other Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania interviews here:
