The first official Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania footage reveals that Kang the Conquerer has killed Avengers before. Kang the Conquerer, played by Jonathan Majors, is an iconic Marvel Comics character who made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the finale of Loki season 1, which aired on Disney+ in 2021. As revealed in that episode, Kang wants to rule the Multiverse, with a variant of him creating the Time Variance Authority to prevent his rise, making him the all-powerful Thanos-type villain that the Avengers will have to assemble and take down at the end of the impending Phase 6 of the MCU in the linked 2025 films Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which was helmed by returning director Peyton Reed, is due in theaters on February 17, 2023, marking the first film in Phase 5 of the MCU after Phase 4 concludes with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in November. It will reteam the main cast, including Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer as Hope van Dyne, and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, although Scott's daughter Cassie will now be played as a teenager by Kathryn Newton. Other familiar Marvel faces include Kang himself and Randall Park returning as Jimmy Woo, who was last seen in the hit Disney+ series WandaVision, and now audiences are getting a tease of what to expect from the MCU's next big bad.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to attend D23 Expo 2022, where today they shared the first Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania footage at their Marvel panel. Although the footage is not available online yet, we are able to share a description of what was shown. The clip opens on a humorous line, with Ant-Man reflecting that, “In that moment all I could think was 'How did The Hulk turn me into a baby?'” It is revealed that this is a line from Scott's audiobook, which he, Hope, and Cassie are listening to in the car. Later, Cassie sends a signal down to the quantum realm. Janet tells her to turn it off, but she, Hank, Hope, Cassie, and Scott are all sucked in. Down there, they meet a character played by Bill Murray who tells Janet he thought she was dead. Then Scott meets Kang, who asks "Have I killed you before? They all blur together.” after finding out that Scott is an Avenger. He reveals that something has been stolen from him and only Scott can get it back. But when he asks "do we have a deal?" Scott says "no, I don't think we do," and Kang throws him against a wall with magic.
The Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania footage proves very foreboding, with Kang's reveal that he has killed Avengers before establishing him as a powerful new villain for the MCU. Although this is probably referring to multiversal variants of the Avengers rather than the versions that MCU fans know and love, it proves that he knows what he's doing when it comes to defeating some of the universe's mightiest heroes. Given Kang is expected to continue through the rest of The Multiverse Saga it will be interesting to see how Paul Rudd's titular hero fares against the villain with the help of The Wasp, his daughter and friends.
Another element of the broader MCU that the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania footage has pulled in is the fact that Scott is cashing in on his fame as an Avenger. Ms. Marvel included a joke about Ant-Man hosting a podcast, and this is something he appears to have also spun off from or into his own audiobook. With the new footage being prominent among the ones featured, Marvel is making it clear that, while Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania may get dark, it will still feature the character's signature sense of humor.