Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Director Peyton Reed on Nine-Year Quantum Realm Plan (Exclusive)

The world of Ant-Man is getting both bigger and smaller than ever in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanumania, as the latest film shrinks our heroes so small that they venture into an entirely new realm, which opens up the door for the project to be the most ambitious Ant-Man film yet, with director Peyton Reed reflecting on how this will pay off things that were teased nearly a decade ago. With Reed having helmed all three solo Ant-Man films, this third film allowed him to close out his trilogy in a fulfilling way. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanumania is in theaters now.

"It's crazy when you think back to the first movie and, at that point, I think our biggest concern was, 'Can an audience take a character named Ant-Man who shrinks and talks to ants seriously?' And, 'Will they accept Paul Rudd as a superhero?'" Reed recalled to ComicBook.com. "Those were the issues back then. And I feel like we accomplished that. But we did set in motion this idea of the Quantum Realm. We introduced that, and it was Adam McKay and Paul Rudd, in their rewrite of the script, that introduced that notion. I, of course, knew it from the comics as the Microverse, and I loved that idea. So we ran with it."

He continued, "I think in the back of our minds, we thought if we were given the chance in the future and success if we could do that, that would be amazing. That'd be a great place to take this trilogy of movies, and here we are now, I don't know, what is it, eight or nine years later? We were able to do that. For me, it was the most gratifying thing in the world. I think, like any director who grew up on the great trilogies, whatever it is, the original Star Wars trilogy, or when there were only three Indiana Jones movies at the time, Back to the Future trilogy, all those things, you have this idea of, 'It'd be great to do a trilogy!' One of the things, as we were writing Quantumania, was let's try and pay off as many of these things that we set up in the first two movies as we can, but also just expand the palette of the movie."

Super heroes Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and The Wasp. Together, with Hope's parents Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Scott's daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought possible. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a. and Stephen Broussard, p.g.a., Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania also stars Jonathan Majors as Kang, David Dastmalchian as Veb, Katy O'Brian as Jentorra, William Jackson Harper as Quaz, and Bill Murray as Lord Krylar.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quanumania is in theaters now.

Are you looking forward to the film? Let us know in the comments!