Marvel’s Phase 5 film is set to hit theaters on February 17.
Football fans who tuned into ESPN’s College Football Playoff National Championship broadcast on Monday night were treated to a lot more than just a new John Williams composition. Marvel Studios debuted a new trailer for “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” and the footage gave fans their best look yet at Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror.
The three-quel sees Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Gregg Turkington, and Michael Douglas returning to the superhero franchise, with Kathryn Newton playing Rudd’s daughter and Bill Murray taking on an unspecified role.
The story will be pivotal to setting up the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the studio has made it clear that Kang will be the next major foe for the remaining Avengers to take on. “The Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” is set to open in theaters in 2025, with “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” director Destin Daniel Cretton handling directing duties.
But while many fans will undoubtedly be looking ahead to the next “Avengers” film, “Quantumania” director Payton Reed made it very clear that his next “Ant-Man” film will be every bit as epic as Marvel’s ensemble films.
“People felt like, ‘Oh, these are fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic “Avengers” movie,’” Reed said in a recent interview. “For this third one, I said, ‘I don’t want to be the palate cleanser anymore. I want to be the big “Avengers” movie.’ We wanted to go in a different direction, and create an epic movie where the bulk of it takes place in the Quantum Realm.”
Reed continued, “I grew up a real Marvel comics nerd, and there are a handful of antagonists in the Marvel comics universe who are all-timers… Loki, obviously. Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four. And Kang the Conqueror. In conversations with Kevin Feige and Marvel, it was like, I want to put Ant-Man and Wasp up against a really formidable villain in this movie, and so we’re doing Kang the Conqueror. In the comics, Kang has dominion over time, he’s a time traveler.”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is set to open in theaters on February 17. Watch the new trailer below.
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