How Is ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp’ Connected With ‘Avengers: Infinity War’?
Ant-Man and the Waspis about as far from the emotional and physical devastation ofAvengers: Infinity Waras you could get. There’s no mention of Thanos, destruction, or doom in the film’s trailers — but thereisan ant playing the drums.
So how doesAnt-Man and the Wasptake the events ofInfinity Warinto account? On the set visit for theAnt-Mansequel, directorPeyton Reedaddressed that giant elephant (Giant…Man?) in the room.
When it was released in 2015,Ant-Manexisted in its own corner of the Marvel universe, barely brushing shoulders with the Avengers except for some lip service and one funny Falcon cameo. Now its sequel seems to be maintaining that isolation from the rest of the MCU.
On/Film’s set visitforAnt-Man and the Wasp, Reed addressed howAnt-Man and the Waspcan exist in a universe that gets progressively smaller. When asked how the sequel ties in withInfinity War, Reed responded:
“We definitely had to deal with the ramifications post-Civil War. That was crucial to Scott [Lang] and crucial to Hope [van Dyne]. I mean, it really is fundamental in the jumping-off point about what’s going on between the two of them at the start of this movie. Outside of that, what I’m really happy about is we’re free to tell sort of our freestanding story.
Once we establish that as the leaping-off point, this thing is going on over here with huge personal stakes and huge other stakes that are really separate of what’s going on withInfinity War. So that is something that was really, really appealing to me. We have enough stuff to track in this movie without having to keep abreast of what’s going on in that.”
SinceAnt-Man and the Waspcomes right off the events ofCaptain America:Civil War, it’s no surprise that’s the Marvel film that plays the biggest role in setting up theAnt-Mansequel. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd)is on house arrest following the deal he took after being arrested for teaming up with Steve Rogers. But that is simply the “jumping-off point,” as Reed says. The rest of the film stays true to the spirit of the firstAnt-Manby telling a standalone story that won’t touch on the rest of the MCU. Or will it?
Is an Avengers Connection in The (Quantum) Realm of Possibilities?
Reed emphasizes the “personal stakes” of the sequel and how “separate” it is fromInfinity War. Which flies in the face of rumors thatAnt-Manwould connect toInfinity Warin some major way. Theories have abounded thatAnt-Man and the Wasp’s venture into the Quantum Realm could set the stage forAvengers 4. The Quantum Realm, which according to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is a dimension “where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant,” will definitely play a large role in the film with the appearance ofMichelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne, who was presumed dead in realm.Theories suggestthat Ant-Man and his ability to move in and out of the Quantum Realm could enable the Avengers to time travel and potentially rewrite history.
So if we’re going by Reed’s statement, it seems like on the surface,Ant-Man and the Waspwon’t be connected toAvengers: Infinity War. But Reed is vague enough about the two films' ties that this might not be the case. There’s still room in his statement to infer that whilemostof the movie might not connect,Infinity Warcould still have some impact later in the film.
We’ll have to wait untilAnt-Man and the Wasphits theaters onJuly 6, 2018to find out.
Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.
