A new trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania has dropped, and it looks like the film is going to be one jam-packed adventure.
“You’re an interesting man, Scott Lang,” says a voice as the trailer opens. “You’re an Avenger.” The music is eerie and sinister. “You have a daughter, but you’ve lost a lot of time. Like me. We can help each other with that...”
In the two-minute clip, the camera spans from Paul Rudd, who plays Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, to his crime-fighting partner Hope van Dyne aka Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and back to Lang, who is picking up his daughter from jail. Then he is in a room with Hope, her father Hank (Michael Douglas), her mother Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his daughter. There is a futuristic-looking machine in the middle of the room, which has a big button.
Someone presses it, the room starts spinning, a vortex of some sort is created and everyone gets pulled into it. By the looks of it, Lang’s daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) and her father are holding onto each other, but she slips from his grip.
“I’m the man who can give you the one thing you want,” says a voice out of shot in the following clip. Then, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a time-travelling supervillain, emerges from the shadows. “Time,” he adds.
Then, it’s all go: there’s a massive planetary kingdom and spaceships, and Lang is seen whizzing through other-worldly mountainous regions and through landscapes that look to be made of a boiling hot lava of some kind. There are flying creatures, battleships, explosions and major fights – and Lang looks like he is in serious trouble in several of the scenes as he faces Kang.
Some fans turned online to share their excitement, and memes, about the latest Marvel instalment.
“What’s better than one paul rudd?? Two Paul Rudds,” Tweeted one fan, commenting on a scene in the new trailer. “Thoughts and prayers for that new avengers lineup,” said another alongside pictures of Kang.
“The face off is coming,” commented a third, next to a photo of Scott facing Kang. “This one’s gonna hurt,” said another.
THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS FOR THAT NEW AVENGERS LINEUP #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania pic.twitter.com/W51PZ8QJCT
— ken (@wandaslizzie) January 10, 2023
But other fans are holding their breath about the release. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the first film of phase five of the Marvel universe, and sees major adversary Kang expanding his powers.
But the Ant-Man franchise, despite being incredibly lucrative – parts one and two each racked in over 500 million dollars each – are by no means Marvel’s biggest exports. Some fans have been wondering whether Kang’s threat is enough to properly kick off phase five.
The story is set to directly follow the events of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and seems to be setting the stage for the next Avengers films, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2026).
The new trailer has also provoked a tonne of questions: will daughter Cassie become a superhero? And where is Bill Murray? (The 72-year-old actor is set to play Axia governor Lord Krylar and appeared in the October-released teaser trailer, but not in the new trailer).
In the MCU, Cassie does eventually become the superhero Stature and by all accounts, it looks like Ant-Man three could be the film where she goes through her big transformation. Back in February 2021, Kathryn Newton, who is also replacing 2019’s Avengers: Endgame’s Emma Fuhrmann in the role, said to ET Online: “I’m going to do my best to be the best superhero of all time.”
Murray will enjoy his MCU debut in Ant-Man’s third instalment. While most details have, as usual, been kept under wraps, Murray did let slip on The Eli Manning Show in December 2021 that his superpower in the film is that he’s a “bad guy.”
But, his Marvel tenure might be short-lived: when speaking to German newspaper FAZ (translated by Variety in October 2021), Murray said: “Let’s put it this way: the director is a good guy, and now I’ve at least tried out what it’s like to shoot a Marvel movie. But I don’t think I need that experience a second time.”
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is the 31st film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the third Ant-Man instalment: the first Ant-Man film was released in 2015, while Ant-Man and the Wasp was released in 2018.
The film was originally set to be released in 2022, but was rescheduled as part of a major Marvel reshuffle.
