After Avengers: Infinity War broke hearts and wiped out half of the Marvel Cinematic Universe earlier in 2018, Ant-Man and the Wasp provided the perfect palate cleanser. In director Peyton Reed's follow-up to 2015's Ant-Man, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang dons his Ant-Man costume to become Marvel's smallest, and occasionally tallest, hero once again. While Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne only played a supporting role in Ant-Man's first cinematic adventure, she makes her long-awaited debut as the Wasp in this film. With strong reviews from critics and early box office success, the movie seems set to become another winner in Marvel Studios' long string of critically-acclaimed blockbusters. While it doesn't connect to the rest of the MCU quite as much as Infinity War did, the movie still has some major nods to Marvel's past and present. It also explored some potentially huge plot elements that could offer some major hints about the future of the MCU.
Now, CBR is breaking down all of the cameos and references you might've missed from Ant-Man and the Wasp. In this list, we'll be breaking down the movie's secondary and supporting characters and their comic book counterparts. We'll also be looking at some of the celebrity cameos that were in the movie, including one that was cut out of the film. While some of the film's secrets will likely remain undiscovered until its home and digital release, this list covers all of the major comic references we've spotted so far in the 20th entry in the MCU.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains comprehensive spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is in theaters now in most territories.
17 JIMMY WOO
While Randall Park's Jimmy Woo is just the F.B.I. agent who kept tabs on Scott Lang in Ant-Man and the Wasp, he's one of Marvel's oldest spies and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most famous members. When he was created by Al Feldstein and Joe Maneely in 1956's Yellow Claw #1, Woo was an F.B.I. agent, like his MCU counterpart. After being reintroduced by Jim Steranko in 1967's Strange Tales #160, Woo joined S.H.I.E.L.D.
When Marvel published Godzilla in the late 1970s, Woo was one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tasked with capturing the creature. In 2006, a rejuvenated Woo took on a starring role in Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk's Agents of Atlas, a critically-acclaimed series where he led a team of heroes who were active in the 1950s.
16 CASSIE LANG
In both Ant-Man movies, Abby Ryder Fortson portrays Cassie Lang, Ant-Man's young daughter who seems eager to become a superhero herself. Years after Cassie debuted in comics in David Michelinie and John Byrne's Marvel Premiere #7, she exposed herself to Pym Particles and developed size-changing powers.
After joining the Young Avengers in 2005, Cassie took the codename Stature.
With the ability to grow 250 feet tall, Cassie was one of Marvel's more prominent teenage heroes for several years. After stints with the Avengers Initiative and the Mighty Avengers, Stature perished fighting Doctor Doom, but a repentant Doom later revived her. While Cassie's currently working as Ant-Man's partner, Stinger, in comics, several reports have indicated that Cassie could play a meaningful role in Avengers 4.
15 STAN LEE
Naturally, Ant-Man and the Wasp wouldn't feel like a real MCU movie without a cameo from the legendary Stan Lee, who co-created the original Ant-Man and the Wasp with Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby in the 1960s. In this sequel, the iconic Marvel writer and editor plays a man whose car is miniaturized during a chase scene and responds by lamenting the psychedelic excesses of his younger days.
This wasn't the first Stan Lee cameo to reference the psychedelic 1960s. In 2016's Doctor Strange, Lee sits on a bus reading Aldous Huxley's trippy book, The Doors of Perception, while a mystical battle waged on around him. This wasn't Stan Lee's first cameo in an Ant-Man movie either, since he plays a bartender in 2015's Ant-Man.
14 MAGGIE LANG
As Scott Lang's ex-wife, Judy Greer's Maggie Lang played a fairly sizeable role in 2015's Ant-Man. However, she has much less time on screen in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Although she and Lang are on decent terms, she only has an incidental role in the sequel.
In the Marvel Universe, Maggie's comic book counterpart is named Peggy Rae Burdick.
Peggy was created by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank in 2003's Avengers #62. Like Maggie, Peggy has been largely defined by her roles as Cassie's mother and Scott's ex-wife. In comics, Peggy and Scott have a chillier relationship with each other. After Cassie came back from the dead, Peggy moved with her to Miami, Florida in a futile attempt to give her daughter a normal life.
13 JIM PAXTON
In 2015's Ant-Man, Bobby Cannavale's Detective Jim Paxton doesn't get along too well with Scott Lang. In addition to being Maggie Lang's fiancé, he arrests Scott twice for various crimes. After seeing Ant-Man save Cassie's life, the San Francisco Police Detective warms up to Scott considerably. During his greatly-reduced screentime in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Jim is mainly a fan of family group hugs and Scott's newfound skill at simple magic tricks.
In the Marvel Universe, Paxton's comic book counterpart is Blake Burdick. Like his wife, the aforementioned Peggy, Blake was created by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank in 2003's Avengers #62. Like Jim, he's also a police officer who arrested Scott Lang once. It's unclear whether he's also a fan of close-up magic.
12 GHOST, AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Although she's not really evil, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost is one of Ant-Man and the Wasp's main antagonists. After getting caught in a blast of quantum energy as a child, Ava Starr began phasing in and out of reality.
In exchange for a suit that helped her control her powers, she began working for S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since S.H.I.E.L.D.'s recent operations have been confined to TV's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., this makes Ghost the first new cinematic S.H.I.E.L.D. agent introduced in several films. Her male comic book counterpart was created by Bob Layton and David Michelinie in 1987's Iron Man #212. While that Ghost is a much more mysterious Iron Man villain, that Ghost also evolved into an antihero on the Thunderbolts, a government-sanctioned team of semi-reformed villains.
11 EGGHEAD
In Ant-Man and the Wasp, Michael Cerveris' Elihas Starr, Ghost's father, was a scientist who stole Hank Pym's plans to access the power of the Quantum Realm. When Starr tried to rebuild Pym's machine, it malfunctioned, and the resulting explosion took his life. While he wasn't without flaws, Starr cared about his family and tried to protect his daughter in his final moments.
The Marvel Universe's Starr is a cackling mad scientist named Egghead. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1962's Tales to Astonish #38, Egghead was Hank Pym's arch-enemy when Pym was Ant-Man. After battling the Avengers, Hawkeye fatally wounded the villain to save Hank in Roger Stern and Al Milgrom's Avengers #229. Despite that 1983 death, Egghead was resurrected in 2015.
10 LUIS
If 2015's Ant-Man had a real breakout character, it was Michael Peña's Luis. The fast-talking reformed thief was Scott Lang's cellmate in San Quentin Prison, and he remained close to Lang after they got out. He even helped Scott out on his first Ant-Man adventure.
After that movie, Luis was so well-received that he was brought over into Marvel's comics too.
In the Marvel Universe, Luis was introduced by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas in 2015's Astonishing Ant-Man #1. Like his cinematic counterpart, Luis was Scott's cellmate when he was in prison. While he hasn't appeared much in comics, the MCU's Luis returns as a legitimate businessman in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Unsurprisingly, Luis is still prone to lengthy, meandering anecdotes filled with unnecessary information.
9 X-CON SECURITY CONSULTANTS
Although they were a crew of thieves in 2015's Ant-Man, Scott Lang, Luis, T.I.'s Dave and David Dastmalchian's Kurt turn over a new leaf in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, they formed X-Con Security to put their criminal knowledge to good use. In comics, Scott Lang briefly ran a similar business called Ant-Man Security Solutions.
Created by Nick Spencer and Ramon Rosanas in 2015's Ant-Man #2, the business employed minor heroes and reformed supervillains like the slightly savage Grizzly, the clairvoyant Mary Morgenstern and the robot-possessing Machinesmith. While that company failed after Lang was arrested, X-Con Security seems like it's on a slightly more successful tack. The company's financial woes ended when Dave and Kurt were seen apprehending black market tech dealers on TV.
8 THE ORIGINAL WASP
After being teased in 2015's Ant-Man, Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, finally makes her full cinematic debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Although she was still trapped in the psychedelic Quantum Realm for most of the film, her husband, Hank Pym, helped her escape back into the real world by the end of the movie.
In comics, Janet helped form the Avengers and has been one of the team's main leaders.
Since she was created by Stan Lee, Ernest Hart and Jack Kirby in 1963's Tales to Astonish #44, Janet evolved from carefree socialite into one of Marvel's greatest heroes. Like her cinematic counterpart, Janet also spent years trapped in the Microverse, Marvel's comic book Quantum Realm, before returning to the Avengers.
7 HAYLEY LOVITT
While Michelle Pfeiffer might've been billed as the MCU's original Wasp, she wasn't the first actress to play her on the big screen. That honor belongs to Hayley Lovitt. During a flashback sequence in 2015's Ant-Man, she played Janet in a scene that showed how she got trapped in the Quantum Realm.
Although her face didn't appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp, she portrays a young Janet van Dyne again. In another flashback, Pfeiffer's face was digitally de-aged and placed on Lovitt's body as Janet said good-bye to a young Hope. Lovitt has a considerably more visible role as the living mutant computer Sage on The Gifted. That makes her one of the few actors with roles in both the MCU and Fox's X-Men universe.
6 BILL FOSTER
Throughout Ant-Man and the Wasp, Laurence Fishburne's Bill Foster serves as a friendly antagonist for Ant-Man and his allies. Before their intellectual rivalry tore them apart, Foster worked with Pym on Goliath, a size-changing experiment where Bill was able to grow 25 feet tall.
In the Marvel Universe, Foster operated as the gigantic superhero Goliath.
After being introduced in 1966 as Pym's lab assistant by Stan Lee and Don Heck in Avengers #32, Foster became a hero who was also called Giant-Man and Black Goliath. While he briefly starred in his own series in 1976, Foster was mainly a supporting character in various comics. Unfortunately, he only returned to prominence when he controversially perished in 2006's Civil War #4, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven.
5 LANGSTON FISHBURNE
In a technologically impressive but slightly controversial move, both Ant-Man movies digitally de-aged Michael Douglas' Hank Pym for a few flashback sequences. While Douglas' face was digitally placed over actor Dax Griffin for Pym's flashbacks, Langston Fishburne portrays a younger version of Bill Foster, the same character his father portrayed in Ant-Man and Wasp.
Although the Fishburnes bare a fairly clear resemblance to one another, Laurence's face was digitally de-aged and projected onto Langston's body in the film. Outside of the MCU, Langston has worked as both an actor and a dancer. While this movie is his most high-profile role, he's had a recurring role on the web series Vanessa & Jan, guest-starred in NCIS: New Orleans and toured with several ballet companies.
4 TIM HEIDECKER
In one of Ant-Man and the Wasp's quickest cameos, comedian Tim Heidecker plays "Whale Boat Captain Daniel Gooobler," who promptly freaks out when he sees Scott Lang transform into Giant-Man. While Heidecker gained prominence with the Adult Swim shows Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, this wasn't his first Marvel role. He also played Reed Richards' adoptive father in 2015's critically-derided Fantastic Four.
As part of an ongoing bit for his web series On Cinema, Heidecker and his comedy partner Gregg Turkington have an ongoing dispute over getting film cameos. Turkington already made a cameo as the ice cream shop manager who fired Lang in 2015's Ant-Man, and director Peyton Reed appeared in an episode of On Cinema.
3 SONNY BURCH
While Ant-Man and the Wasp has more sympathetic antagonists than truly evil villains, Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch is the movie's most irredeemable bad guy. Created by John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas and Phillip Tan in 2003's Iron Man #73, Burch's comic book counterpart was an Iron Man foe who only made five appearances in his brief existence.
In comics, Burch ran Cross Technologies, the company founded by Ant-Man's rival Darren Cross.
After Tony Stark publicly revealed that he was Iron Man, he lost the patents for his armor. Burch tried to take advantage of the situation by incorporating Iron Man tech into new government weapons. After Burch's weapons malfunctioned and almost destroyed Washington D.C., Burch perished, and Stark became the Secretary of Defense.
2 TOM SCHARPLING AND JIM WURSTER
While Ant-Man and the Wasp had a few blink-and-miss-it moments, one of the movie's quick cameos ended up on the cutting room floor. Comedians, and director Peyton Reed's friends, Tom Scharpling and Jim Wurster filmed as scene as Sonny Burch's getaway drivers. While the two are best known for their work on The Best Show, Scharpling's long-running Internet radio show, their scene was cut out from the film for unspecified reasons.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time Scharpling has been cut out of a Marvel movie. He also filmed a cameo for 2015's Ant-Man, but that was cut for time. While Wurster is a veteran indie rock musician with stints in bands like Superchunk and the Mountain Goats, Scharpling voices Greg Universe in Steven Universe.
1 SECRETS OF THE QUANTUM REALM
Even though Ant-Man and the Wasp has already premiered, director Peyton Reed and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that film's Quantum Realm scenes still hold secrets. As CBR reported, Reed added that these "laid some groundwork" for the MCU's future.
Feige added that some of the Quantum Realm's secrets might only be in a single frame of film.
From Hank Pym's fantastic voyage into the Quantum Realm to the mid-credits shot of Lang floating in nothingness, the Quantum Realm's psychedelic background changed constantly. Still, some fans have already claimed to see Thanos or Dormammu in the Realm's shapeless clouds. In all likelihood, the future of Ant-Man, the Wasp and the rest of the MCU won't be clear until Avengers 4 hits theaters in 2019.