‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Trailer

Though fans at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con (and those who saw grainy, phone-shot footage online) got a first glimpse at footage from the third ‘Ant-Man’ movie, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’, today’s trailer is the really, officially official first look.

And it promises much Quantum Realm chaos.

Opening in more comedic style (as befits the adventures of Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang, which tend to hew more towards the funny when he’s not helping the Avengers restore half the life in the universe), we see Scott at a good point in his life. He’s respected after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and even scored employee at the month at Baskin Robbins.

Even if some people can’t seem to realize his hero name is Ant-Man, not Spider-Man.

Yet when he and daughter Cassie (here played by Kathryn Newton) invent a signaling device that can communicate with the Quantum Realm, things take a much darker, surreal turn.

He, Cassie, partner Hope (Evangeline Lily, back as the Wasp), Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) are sucked into the realm, a confusing, chaotic place that serves as a universe beneath our own.

Though Scott has been here before, Janet (who, let’s not forget, was trapped for decades) knows this is a far more dangerous place than anyone truly suspected. And now she, Scott and the rest are our doorway into seeing more of it than ever before.

From the looks of the footage here, we’re in for something more akin to ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (though there is less of the comedy on display after that opening salvo) as characters explore a strange world, the surface of which we’ve only glimpsed. After all, it’s one in which Bill Murray plays a role.

The big threat here, though, comes from Kang (Jonathan Majors), a variant of the He Who Remains character we met at the end of ‘Loki’ (also, unsurprisingly played by Majors). In keeping with his comic book origins, this version is much more of a warrior type, with big plans – plans, we assume that mean nothing good for either this realm or our own.

His name is Kang the Conqueror after all, not Kang the Puppy Groomer.

Kang, of course, is building up to be the big threat for the next couple of phases (this movie kicks off Phase 5), and the choice to introduce him in the usually lighter and fluffier ‘Ant-Man’ movie series is an interesting one. The trailer, scored with Elton John’s ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick’ road certainly points to a darker, more epic film than the previous two, though hopefully not losing their spirit.

Peyton Reed returns as director, with Jeff Loveness (whose work on this scored him the job of writing ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’), while the cast also includes Randall Park (back as Jimmy Woo).

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will be in theaters on February 17th next year.