‘Ant-Man And The Wasp’ Director Says Janet Van Dyne Will Be A Very Important Character

Ant-Man and the Wasp will fully introduce Janet van Dyne to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after the character — a founding Avenger in the original Marvel Comics — was glimpsed in Ant-Man, lost to the mysterious Quantum Realm and presumed long dead.

Janet (played by Michelle Pfeiffer in her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut) was the original Wasp, high-flying partner of the first Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas).

Their daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), will suit up as the modern-day Wasp alongside ex-con-turned-superhero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), but Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed has described Janet as “a very important character.”

“It’s fair to say if someone were to have spent thirtysomething years in the Quantum Realm and survived, it would have an effect,” Reed told EMPIRE Magazine (via CBM). “What did she eat? All she eats is cereal called Quantum Krispies.”

Janet’s disappearance caused a rift between Hank and his estranged daughter, who wanted to utilize the same technology as her mother and get in on the action — a move that was forbidden by her protective father, who refused to lose his daughter the same way he lost his wife.

Get in on the action she shall: set photos have shown Lilly’s Hope sporting her super suit and a video captured from the set showed Wasp battling the film’s villain, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen).

“It had this great sense of humor about it and just this unusual tone,” Pfeiffer said of 2015’s Ant-Man, which convinced the three-time Oscar-nominated actress to board its sequel. “This new script has the same thing. It’s nicely written.”

Recent foreign promotional materials dubbed the Ant-Man sequel “Marvel’s first romantic comedy.”

Pfeiffer joins alongside new cast members John-Kamen, Walton Goggins, Randall Park and Laurence Fishburne, appearing with returning Ant-Man stars Rudd, Lilly, and Douglas.

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6.