It’s a shame that Paul Rudd didn’t get his perfect Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel back at the start of Phase 5, even though Marvel Studios teased its best story. Rudd has played Scott Lang since his live-action debut in 2015’s Ant-Man. He’s gone on to become one of the most powerful and important heroes in the MCU, but his 2023 adventure didn’t reflect his prominence well enough. His third solo movie became a victim of Marvel’s push for quantity over quality, and while this is now being rectified, we still grieve the Ant-Man sequel we could have had.
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2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off Phase 5 by thrusting Scott Lang, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), her parents Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne (Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer), and Lang’s daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), into the Quantum Realm. There, they came face-to-face with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), who was seeking escape after a lengthy exile. Unfortunately, the Conqueror’s proper MCU debut fell flat with a lackluster storyline, which was not the one we were initially promised in Quantumania’s trailers.
Official trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania suggested that Kang the Conqueror was set to offer Scott Lang time – “the one thing he wants.” This came in the wake of Scott Lang returning from being trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years, meaning he missed some formative years in his daughter’s life, and wasn’t able to watch her grow up. Scott and Cassie reunited in Avengers: Endgame, where Emma Fuhrmann’s Cassie appeared as a 16-year-old. Quantumania’s trailers teased Kang giving Scott Lang this time back, giving him “a second chance,” but this didn’t come to fruition.
The story we got in Quantumania saw Janet van Dyne reveal more about her past relationship with Kang from her own time trapped in the Quantum Realm. Meanwhile, Kang enlisted Ant-Man to recover his multiversal power core, that would enable him to finally escape the Quantum Realm and continue his rampage across the cosmos. This narrative is dull and formulaic when compared to the intimate, personal, heavy-hitting, and poignant familial storyline that we could have had if Kang had offered Scott Lang the chance to go back and get a second chance with Cassie.
Paul Rudd has been confirmed to be reprising the role of Scott Lang’s Ant-Man in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday, but it’s unclear whether the rest of his size-changing family will be joining him. Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas have both recently announced their semi-retirements from acting, prompting theories they may be killed by Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) in the Russo brothers’ upcoming crossover movie. It would be great to see Newton’s Cassie Lang get more development as Stature – especially since Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania fumbled her proper MCU debut.
Would you have preferred this alternate storyline in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? Let us know in the comments!
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