How Marvel went big with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

When director Peyton Reed started outlining plans for his third Ant-Man movie, he decided to go big — by going very, very, very small.

With 2015's Ant-Man and 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp, Reed carved out his own tiny, irreverent corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, introducing Paul Rudd as ex-con-turned-hero Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly as the brilliant businesswoman Hope Van Dyne. As their fellow Avengers faced off against towering gods and monsters, Scott and Hope found their own charming, small-scale groove, operating in what Reed calls the "margins of the MCU." (It's certainly the only superhero franchise where the hero gets fired from Baskin Robbins, and the climactic final battle occurs on a kids' train set.)

But with the third film, the trilogy-ender Quantumania, Reed decided he was tired of being Marvel's "palate cleanser." Instead, the director wanted to, ahem, up the ante.  The worst sin you can commit for any movie, especially for Marvel movies, is to repeat what's been done before," Reed explains, speaking to EW at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles, one day after the film's premiere. "I wanted to make the third one as whacked-out and as insane as we could."

The result is the decidedly whacked-out and insane Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (out Friday). The film follows Scott and Hope as they're trapped in the Quantum Realm, the microscopic fantasy world that's been teased throughout the franchise. Together with Scott's now-adult daughter Cassie Lang (played by Freaky's Kathryn Newton) and Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), these tiny heroes have to find their way home, dodging otherworldly creatures and one particularly sinister villain. (More on him in a minute.)

Reed describes the film as a trippy odyssey, comparing it to Dorothy's journey through Oz or Frodo's trek through Middle-earth. "For me, I loved being able to paint on a bigger canvas and create this incredible world that didn't owe to any other part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe," the 58-year-old director explains.

"I heard Peyton say before we started, basically: 'I want to finally go big like those other Marvel pictures,'" Douglas, 78, adds. "I'm thinking, 'I don't know, man.' I thought he did a lot with the first and second ones with all these effects. But this was just spectacular."

The stakes have never been bigger — not just for Ant-Man but the wider Marvel universe, too. Quantumania is the first film in Phase 5, the terminology Marvel uses to categorize its ever-expanding library of movies and TV shows. (Quantumania, if you're wondering, is film No. 31.) If Phase 4 was about resetting and introducing new characters after the shakeup of 2019's Avengers: Endgame, Phase 5 is about looking forward.

Perhaps the biggest game-changer is how Quantumania officially introduces Kang the Conqueror, the notorious comic book baddie, played by Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors. A variant of Kang popped up in the season 1 finale of Loki on Disney+, and now an even more malevolent version is here to make trouble in the Quantum Realm. He'll also continue to cause mischief throughout the MCU, culminating with 2025's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2026's Avengers: Secret Wars.

"For years, we've always had the inkling that Kang would be an amazing follow-up to Thanos," teases Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who spoke at length about Phase 5 exclusively with EW. "He's got that equal stature in the comics, but he's a completely different villain."

That's big pressure for Marvel's smallest heroes. Not only does Quantumania need to serve as a satisfying trilogy-ender for Ant-Man and Co., but it must also set up the next several years of storytelling, anchored by Majors' nefarious, time-traveling villain. If all goes well, it won't just be one small step for Ant-Man. It'll be one giant leap for the entire MCU.

Speaking to EW in early February, Rudd can't help but feel a little reflective. Even at the end of a long day of press after a late night celebrating the Quantumania world premiere, the 53-year-old actor is as cheery (and ageless) as ever. It's been nearly a decade since he was first cast as the fast-talking, light-fingered Scott, who trades a career as a petty thief for life as a hero. At the time, Rudd was best known for roles in comedy classics like Clueless, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and Wet Hot American Summer. Now, he notes, he's forever associated with the Marvel pantheon — something he calls a "real honor" but also a bit of a "mind-bender."

"I didn't know when I started that we would be here, these many years later, talking about the third installment," Rudd says with a slight sense of amazement. "It's been a really cool ride."