By Pierre Lorenz on July 27, 2022 at 11:59 am

Many have already suspected it, and this past weekend it was finally confirmed in San Diego: The upcoming "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" will officially kick off Phase 5 of the MCU. Director Peyton Reed reaffirmed this in an interview with Access, where he held out the prospect of profound changes to the MCU through "Quantumania". An official poster by Marvel artist Andy Park, who created illustrations for "WandaVision" or "Shang-Chi" among others, shows the three protagonists of the movie: Scott Lang aka Ant-Man, Hope van Dyne aka Wasp, and Jonathan Majors as the new MCU villain Kang the Conqueror. In addition, Scott's daughter Cassie stars for the first time in her own suit as superhero Stinger, who will sooner or later follow in her father's footsteps. However, Thanos' successor Kang will not be the only villain in "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania". A still nameless villain played by Bill Murray is also rumored, as is an appearance by MODOK. The latter has his own animated stop-motion series on Disney+, which didn't go down too well with fans and is not part of the MCU. There are also a lot of rumors surrounding a return of Corey Stoll as Darren Cross aka Yellowjacket. In the fight against Ant-Man, he was allegedly killed by the superhero, but he might very well continue to exist in the quantum realm and be waiting for his return.

Indeed, the biggest change that MCU fans can expect in the new "Ant-Man", besides Kang and numerous other villains, is the introduction of the said Quantum Realm. This subatomic dimension will enable time travel in the future and at the same time, it is a motley setting in itself that resembles a drug trip in which space and time are suspended. Either way, it is a fascinating game changer that, much like the multiverse in Phase 4, will take on a significant role in the next MCU films. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" will hit theaters on February 17, 2023.