Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will challenge the heroes introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Four like never before, according to screenwriter Jeff Loveness.
Loveness teased the threat posed by Phase Five's new villain, Kang the Conqueror, in an interview with SFX Magazine. "Kang is a top-tier, A-list Avengers villain," he said. "What do you do when you feel you're not enough against that? How do you step up to face the challenge of this generation, who is Thanos on an exponential level? He’s almost this infinite Thanos. I think we're setting things up for a pretty dynamic story. As I'm building to Avengers I want it to feel like a generational struggle. Phase Four felt like the birth of new characters. You're giving everyone a little bit of a breath, you're broadening out the universe, you have fun Disney+ shows that are elevating characters. And now I think it's time to put the pedal to the gas again, and really take all these new characters that we like and throw them into the fire."
In the same interview, Loveness outlined the key difference between Kang and Thanos: humanity. The screenwriter noted that Kang, unlike Thanos, is human rather than an alien. Loveness also pointed out that the time-traveling baddie is portrayed by a flesh-and-blood actor, Jonathan Majors, whereas Thanos was a CGI creation based on Josh Brolin's motion capture performance. He added that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will explore Kang's vulnerability (especially his loneliness) before establishing him as a threat to the entire MCU itself.
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Loveness previously revealed that the idea of pitting Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania's titular protagonists against a villain of Kang's caliber emerged early in production. "The first discussion [the production team] had was, 'What if Ant-Man is accidentally in an Avengers movie by himself?'" he recalled. This reflected director Peyton Reed's vision for the film, who said in an earlier interview that he wanted to break the tradition of solo Ant-Man installments serving as "fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic Avengers movie."
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige ultimately agreed with Reed, granting Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania the prestige of being the first entry in the MCU Phase Five. Feige later said that the second Ant-Man sequel "earned that position" because the Scott Lang/Ant-Man character had himself graduated from comic relief to a key figure in the MCU stable.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania arrives in theaters on Feb. 17, 2023.
Source: SFX Magazine, via GamesRadar+