Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) kicks off next month with the February 17 release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The third installment in the series for the tiniest Avenger is highly anticipated, and we will finally get to see the incredible Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conquerer.
Majors made his Marvel debut in episode six of Loki as “He Who Remains”. Quantumania‘s Kang will be a variation of that character from another multiverse. Considering Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is set to release in 2025, we know Kang is likely to be the Thanos-level threat of this portion of the MCU.
During the third quarter of the national championship game between TCU and Georgia, we got our second trailer for Quantumania, and we have THOUGHTS.
#AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania in theaters February 17, 2023#MarvelStudios pic.twitter.com/JpVU35AGlA
— Marvel Updates (@marvel_updat3s) January 10, 2023
Time is of the essence
We knew from previous dealings with both Loki and the multiversal plots of most of the MCU’s episodic and cinematic releases in recent years that time will be a major player going forward. Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness all deal with wild timelines, as did Avengers: Endgame.
That last title feels particularly important here as Kang tells Scott — who blipped after Thanos’ snap — that he’s the only one that can give him what he really wants, which is time that he lost with his daughter.
“He can rewrite existence and shatter timelines,” Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) says in the trailer.
Scott is going to make the mistake of trusting Kang
“I don’t care who this guy is,” Lang says. “I just lost so much.” It’s clear that Ant-Man will be willing to do literally anything to save his family and get more time with Cassie. Seems like a risky move.
JONATHAN MAJORS
Every. Single. Scene. Is. Perfection.
Jonathan Majors is emerging into an absolute superstar right in front of our eyes with roles in films like Devotion and the upcoming Creed III. He’s electric on screen, and you get every ounce of that in this 2:19 trailer. It feels like this may end up being one of the best castings in the MCU by the time Phase 6 ends.
Kang is a worthy Big Bad
Marvel has had a villain problem for just about the entirety of the MCU. We’ve had some standouts (Hi, Thanos. Hi, Vulture), but a lot of times they either kill them off in one movie (Hi, Xu Wenwu) or don’t really give us much to work with (Hi, Malekith).
It looks like Kang will be a more-than-worthy opponent across multiple movies, and if one does disappear, there’s always a multiverse full of them to fill that spot.
Phase 5 hopes are HIGH
I don’t think Phase 4 was a disaster by any means, but if this is the movie kicking off Phase 5, sign me all the way up.
