Marvel fans have some strong reactions to seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The third Ant-Man film officially opens in theaters this evening, but some lucky fans got to see early screenings in the lead-up to the movie. The first reactions to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania emerged in early February, with some viewers billing it as the best of Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man franchise. Much of that is due to Jonathan Majors’ Kang being the best villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has ever seen. Luckily, we got firsthand comments after a theater screening of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to see what fans are saying themselves.
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Brandon Davis of ComicBook.com’s Phase Zero spoke to fans after an early screening of Ant-Man 3. The one word that resonated with the first batch of fans was “Wow,” which pretty much summed up the overall feeling of the crowd. “Eye-opening” and “Amazing” were other words used, but Kang the Conqueror was definitely the star of Quantumania, followed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of M.O.D.O.K. The movie did get some comparisons to Star Wars, which could be tied back to the majority of the film taking place in the Quantum Realm.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Director Speaks on Fantastic Four Pitch
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be helmed by franchise director Peyton Reed, who has had a long track record with wanting to be part of the Marvel mythos, previously pitching a Fantastic Four movie set in the team’s original era of the 1960s. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Reed spoke about how Quantumania captures some of the energy that he would have brought to his Fantastic Four adaptation.
“Yeah, I developed Fantastic Four for about a year back in 2002, 2003 when I was finishing up Down with Love, and I chased it,” Reed explained. “I love Fantastic Four. It was my favorite comic growing up, and at the time, it was pre-MCU, obviously. But it became apparent at the time that Fox didn’t want to make the same movie I wanted to make. So when I came on board Ant-Man — and now that we’ve had a chance to do a third one — I really funneled a lot of my Fantastic Four love into Ant-Man. I mean, they are both about dysfunctional families who are superheroes. In this movie we go into the Quantum Realm, which is a bizarro world, possibly not unlike the Negative Zone in Fantastic Four. My first memory of reading about the Microverse in the comics, which became the Quantum Realm, was a Fantastic Four story where Dr. Doom shrunk the Four down into the Microverse. [Writer’s note: Reed is describing events that occurred in Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) No. 16.] So I really took that passion and transferred it into this thing. And honestly, now that they’re actually making a Fantastic Four movie, my feeling is that I’ve already scratched that itch, so I really look forward to seeing Matt Shakman’s version of Fantastic Four. I think it’ll be a delight to see it on a massive IMAX screen and just enjoy it as a moviegoer.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will debut in theaters on Friday, February 17th.
