Marvel’s Ant-Man Director on Setting Up Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (Exclusive)

Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may be the end of the Ant-Man trilogy, but it’s the beginning of the Kang dynasty. Director Peyton Reed’s third film after 2015’s Ant-Man and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp also kicks off the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5, part of what Marvel has dubbed the Multiverse Saga. In building up to 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2026’s Avengers: Secret Wars, which will conclude Phase 6, Reed and writer Jeff Loveness were tasked with introducing the MCU’s next big bad: the time master Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) of the eponymous Kang Dynasty.

“That’s always a fun thing in the Marvel movies. People talk about, ‘How does it work? They’re all connected. Is there some grand plan?’” Reed told ComicBook. “There’s maybe a rough temporary skeleton of a plan, but basically what happens is you do what’s best for your movie, and the people that come after have to figure it out after that. We inherit certain things.”

Inheritances like having Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) under house arrest in Ant-Man and the Wasp because he was imprisoned in Captain America: Civil War, or aging up Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) in Quantumania because of the five-year time jump in Avengers: Endgame. 

“You have to run with it,” Reed said of the hand offs between creative teams. “You would just inherit these things, and that’s kind of fun.”

Quantumania hands things off to The Kang Dynasty, the upcoming fifth Avengers movie written by Loveness and helmed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton. Loveness, whose credits include Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Rick and Morty, “is such a talented writer,” Reed said. “We had so much fun because he’s hilarious. As a comedic writer, amazing. But he’s also steeped in history, and religion, and mythology, and he really helped Jonathan and myself find the voice of Kang.”

As Reed hands over the Ant-Fam and multiversal villain Kang to the Avengers creative team, the filmmaker is confident Loveness will pay off what they set up in Quantumania. 

“He’s the guy who knows all the Marvel Comics lore and builds on it,” Reed said. “He has a great quality in a writer, which [is] he’s psyched to go write. ‘I can’t wait to get behind the computer and do it!’ You know, for a director, that’s the best quality a writer can have.”

Starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, MichellePfeiffer, Kathryn Newton, William Jackson Harper, Katy O’Brian, DavidDastmalchian, Bill Murray, and Jonathan Majors, Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters February 17th.