With Ant-Man and the Wasp coming out two months after Avengers: Infinity War, it’s pretty obvious the films will have some connections. But star Evangeline Lilly has an even bigger idea of how the events in her film could impact the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years to come.
Image: Disney
Lilly, who plays Hope Van Dyne, hinted to Vanity Fair about the plot of Ant-Man and the Wasp – and how it could, potentially, shake up the MCU.
When I heard about Infinity War and the direction that they’re heading, I did have this moment of realising, ‘Oh, wow, there’s a bit of a déjà vu for me with the Lost franchise.’ We are hitting that [Lost] season 4 space where everything’s about to shift, and you’re about to lose the solid ground underneath you. And [Ant-Man and the Wasp], of course, will play a part in that.
Those characters are experts in the quantum realm. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, they are trying everything in their power to safely enter the quantum realm and return back from it because they have evidence from the first film that Scott Lang was able to do that. If he can do it, why can’t we? If we do succeed in Ant-Man and the Wasp, then that does open a whole entire new multi-verse to enter into and play around in. I’m not the story creator, so I can’t tell you what they’re going to do with that. But I definitely see the potential there.
Now, that might sound like she’s only talking about Ant-Man and the Wasp. But, read this quote from Disney CEO Bob Iger in the same article.
We’re looking for worlds that are completely separate from the worlds we’ve already visited. They can be separate geographically, or separate in time – not just in place but in time. So there’s almost, it’s not quite infinite, but the directions we could go are extraordinary.
Let’s take the first part first. It isn’t exactly a bombshell that Ant-Man and the Wasp will focus on the characters trying to enter, and return from, the quantum realm. That was a huge reveal in the first film, and we know that Michelle Pfeiffer plays Hope’s mother, Janet van Dyne, this time around. Janet is a character who was trapped there for decades so she has to get out somehow.
The second part of Lilly’s statement, coupled with Iger’s, is even more interesting, though: The possibility that the future Marvel films will be driven by this ability to travel through the quantum realm. Now, this makes sense for some characters. Doctor Strange, for one. Captain Marvel is another. And even going back to Ant-Man, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has teased that the quantum realm will be important.
But Lilly’s statements give those sentiments a whole new level – the idea that the quantum realm isn’t just for a few characters, but could potentially be for everyone. A gateway into other dimensions, and so much more. And if that’s the case, quotes such as this one, from Feige, make even more sense.
What we’ll continue to do post the next Avengers movies, is dig into different kinds of characters, different aspects of current characters, to keep things as fresh as they have ever been. And that’s what’s exciting about the next decade or so that we’ve planned out. Twenty-two movies in, and we’ve got another 20 movies on the docket that are completely different than anything that’s come before. Intentionally.
All of these quotes come from an awesome Vanity Fair piece teasing all kinds of things regarding the future of Marvel. Check it out at the below link.
Ant-Man and the Wasp opens 5 July 2018. The first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War will be out this week.