20 facts you might not know about 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

By this point, the idea of the “phases” of the Marvel Cinematic is well known. The fourth phase ended with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022. Then, in 2023, Phase Five began with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Peyton Reed returned, once again, to direct his third Ant-Man film, making him the only director to help this series. However, Quantumania got a new writer. That’s true in more than one way. Jeff Loveness wasn’t just new to Ant-Man or the MCU. This was his feature film debut, having been best known for writing on Rick & Morty.

In the first two Ant-Man films, Scott Lang’s daughter Cassie was played by Abby Ryder Fortson. Then, for Scott’s return from the Quantum Realm in Endgame, Cassie was recast with Emma Fuhrmann to indicate her aging during that time. For the larger role in Quantumania, in which Cassie is one of the leads, Fuhrmann was replaced by Kathryn Newton. This news, reasonably, was greeted with disappointment by Fuhrmann, who expressed an interest in returning to the MCU.

It was known that a new major villain was being established with Quantumania, and this villain would have to first appear on Loki. They decided on Kang the Conqueror, but then Reed and the showrunners over at Loki had to agree on an actor. Jonathan Majors landed the role. Reed compared Kang to Alexander the Great, while Majors drew inspiration from Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, and Iago from Othello.

Since almost all of Quantumania takes place in the Quantum Realm, Scott’s buddies don’t appear. However, one of those actors does…sort of. David Dastmalchian, who previously played Kurt, voiced the slime alien Veb.

Comedian Tom Scharpling can’t catch a break in the MCU. He filmed cameos for the first two Ant-Man movies, but those scenes were cut each time. This time, Scharpling didn’t even get that lucky. A scene was written for him, but it was cut before he even got to film it.

Cross, played by Corey Stoll, was the villain in the first Ant-Man. Much to our surprise, he returned in Quantumania, but as M.O.D.O.K. Loveness called M.O.D.O.K. his favorite character in the film, comparing him to Kevin Kline’s character Otto from A Fish Called Wanda and Frank Grimes from The Simpsons.

Before M.O.D.O.K. popped up in Quantumania, others hoped to use the admittedly idiosyncratic character. There had been talk of having the villainous killing machine in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Infinity War. In fact, he was even supposed to be in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that fell through as well.

Reed was trying to think of how Kang would have been aware of Hank, Scott, Hope, and Cassie and how to get a hold of them all (along with Janet, who he knew from the Quantum Realm). Then, it occurred to the director that they could use Cross for that by having had him fall into the Quantum Realm and meet Kang. Cross became M.O.D.O.K., and all the pieces fell into place.

Apparently, we’re as preoccupied with M.O.D.O.K. as the Quantumania crew. That esoteric dude with the giant head really sticks with you! When Stoll was offered the chance to play M.O.D.O.K., he accepted it enthusiastically. That was partially to work with the Ant-Man cast and crew again, but also, he is apparently a big comics fan and loved the idea of getting to play that murderous mechanism.

Murray is a mercurial guy, and he is famously hard to pin down for a movie (even after he agrees to appear). However, Reed was able to get him for Quantumania. It’s not because Murray is an Ant-Man fan. He doesn’t like superhero films. No, Murray said he took the role because he liked Reed’s film Bring It On.

When writing the script, Loveness was inspired by ‘90s family comedies about fathers and their daughters. He cited as influences Father of the Bride, Hook, and Jumanji. Although, that last one is perhaps more of a surrogate father situation.

Did that scene of Hank Pym enlarging a pizza for the family look familiar? Well, it is an homage to the scene in Back to the Future Part II, where the pizza is hydrated and becomes a full-size, cooked pizza. Reed had a connection to that scene. Before he started directing his own films, Reed had a gig directing behind-the-scenes footage on the Back to the Future franchise.

Hope Van Dyne has had an eclectic array of hairstyles throughout her time in the MCU. Her new ‘do in Quantumania was the idea of Lilly, who plays Hope. The hairstyle is in homage to the look of Janet Van Dyne in the Marvel comics.

If Scott’s suit looked a little different (but also familiar), there’s a good reason for that. For this film, the Ant-Man suit was changed to have the chest pattern featured on it in the Marvel comics.

A few different people ask Scott to take a photo with their dog. One of them is played by Mark Oliver Everett. Everett is the frontman of the band Eels, but he is also the son of Hugh Everett. Hugh was the first scientist to propose the “many-worlds interpretation” of quantum theory.

In the mid-credits and post-credits scenes, we see variants of Kang. Hundreds, in fact, though a few get particular attention. If you aren’t well-versed in the comics, the primary versions of Kang we see include Immortus, Centurion, Rama-Tut, and Victor Timely.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was released on February 17, 2023. In its first weekend, the movie made $120.4 million domestically. That made it the third-highest-grossing February release, behind Deadpool and Black Panther.

Making a ton of money at the box office requires a movie to have legs. Look at Avatar: The Way of Water for an example of that. Quantumania struggled on that front. It suffered a 69 percent drop in box office totals domestically in its second weekend, the largest decline of any movie in the MCU.

Marvel characters usually don’t get to a fourth film, but there has already been talk of a fourth Ant-Man movie. One of those people? Michael Douglas, who plays Hank Pym. He said he would return for a fourth movie but under Harrison Ford's rules. In other words, he wants his character to die.