Ant-Man 3’s William Jackson Harper Reacts to Reed Richards and Quasar Theories (Exclusive)

It has been one week since Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrived in theaters, officially ushering in Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was littered with a mix of familiar and new faces in the franchise — including William Jackson Harper, a fan-favorite actor known for his roles in The Good Place and Love Life. Harper plays mind-reading Quantum Realm freedom fighter Quaz in the film, but when he was first confirmed among the cast last fall, there was a lot of speculation about his role. Some had speculated that he would be playing Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic (a role fans had previously advocated for him to play), with Wendell Vaughn / Quasar and even Micronauts leader Arcturus Rann being thrown out as possibilities. While speaking to ComicBook.com‘s Jenna Anderson in support of Quantumania, Harper spoke about the experience of being attached to those major fan theories.

“I feel like the Reed Richards thing was the only thing that I heard, just because it was sort of popping up online and stuff like that,” Harper explained.

“Actually, when I got offered the part, I was like, ‘Oh, is this a actual comic book character?’” Harper continued. “I want to see who this dude is. I’m going to see if I can find some stuff on him. When I found that he was an original creation, it was just sort of like, ‘Oh, okay. So I get to do whatever I want with this dude.’ There’s no nods that I have to make to any sort of backstory. But yeah, I did hear about that and I actually saw that there was a theory that it was the character of Quasar. And I did see that they call Quasar ‘Quaz’ sometimes in the comics. Yeah, I was like, I don’t know, I mean, I guess that one actually made the most sense in a lot of ways because I guess a lot of his powers come from the quantum realm. So I was like, ‘Oh, hey. Yeah.’ I mean, it’s wrong, but that’s some good sleuthing.”

For Harper, being inducted into the MCU in any capacity was a dream opportunity.

“Well, honestly, I never thought I’d be asked to join the franchise at all,” Harper shared. “I’m a fan. So I was just sort of like, ‘I’m down to play. In whatever way they want me to, I’m down to play.’ So that’s really all that went into it for me. Yeah. I’m just a fan, so getting to do it is a huge stroke of luck for me.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now playing exclusively in theaters.