‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’: Peyton Reed reveals when and why it was decided that the film would open Phase 5

After directing the first two installments of “Ant-Man” by himself, Peyton Reed is again in charge of the third, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”, the return of the mini-superhero played by Paul Rudd, which opens Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a sci-fi adventure in which we finally fully explore the Quantum World we’ve been talking about for years.

In this third installment, the Ant-Man saga goes bigger than ever, expanding to give us its most epic installment to date. Although, as Reed tells eCartelera in our interview at the premiere, we still find the story of a family at the center, only this time the threat is greater. “This is our third ‘Ant-Man’ film and we didn’t want to repeat ourselves. We wanted to take Scott and Hope, Hank and Janet, and now Cassie, into whole new territory to answer some of the questions raised by the first two movies”says Reed. “The pressure is the same”to continue, “It’s about giving the audience a different experience and showing them something they’ve never seen before, but also continuing the stories of the characters, individually and as members of this family, by inserting them into Kang’s journey.”.

On “Quantumania”‘s role as an introduction to Phase 5 of the MCU, Reed acknowledges that, when he began work on the project, he had no idea it would be the first film in this new phase of the Multiverse Saga. “We knew from the start that we wanted to introduce a very fearsome villain, and that would be Kang the Conqueror. We’ve always known that.”Explain. “What we didn’t really know was that we would be kicking off Phase 5 and what that meant. I knew Kang’s character from the comics, so I knew he had variations, so it made sense that as the story unfolded he moved around the Multiverse, it would have several ramifications in the MCU. The decision that [‘Ant-Man y la Avispa: Quantumanía’] opening Phase 5 probably took some time after handing the director’s cut to Marvel. Kang is a very important character in this movie, so it made sense, because he’s such a clear line to draw and a connection to so many versions of him.”.

Maintain the essence of Ant-Man in the quantum world

The first two “Ant-Man” were characterized by being small-scale adventures in a universe that was getting bigger and bigger. With ‘Quantumania’, as we said before, the franchise triggers the spectacular with an epic odyssey into a whole new universe. Reed was aware of the risk of losing that smaller essence by surrendering to the multiversal maelstrom, and he made sure to maintain it through various details..

“We liked the idea of ​​retaining the essence of Scott Lang”says the manager. “The first is a heist film and the second is a search and rescue adventure. And into it [‘Quantumanía’], Scott must make a tough deal with Kang to pull off another version of a heist. It was very important to keep the core quality of those characters alive, even as the canvas we’re painting on gets bigger. And it’s not just with the characters. In this film I also wanted to bring out Ant-Man’s other strange powers, not only shrinking and growing, but also being able to communicate with ants. […] We liked the idea of ​​bringing them back.”.

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ is released exclusively in theaters on February 17th.