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Credit: MarvelOver the weekend, Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe gained its 31st feature film and latest entry in the Multiverse Saga. Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania blasted into movie theaters on February 17, 2023, and while it may not have stuck the Quantum Realm landing fans expected, it did mark a key moment in MCU history.
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
It’s been five years since Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne’s last co-op adventure. Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly got equal billing for Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) after Rudd’s solo outing in Ant-Man (2015). From director Peyton Reed, who helmed the first two movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, finds the pair joined once more with Michael Douglas’s Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne. The quartet has gained a fifth this time around, with Kathryn Newton starring as Scott’s daughter Cassie Lang, replacing Avengers: Endgame (2019) actress Emma Fuhrmann.
Anticipation was high as fans headed into the third Ant-Man movie, especially after the monumental set up of Kang the Conqueror in Michael Waldron’s Loki in 2021. Jonathan Majors reprises his role as the new Marvel Big Bad for Quantumania, although in Reed’s movie he is Kang the Conqueror and not a Variant by the name of He Who Remains — the character that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) faced in the season 1 finale of the Disney+ TV show.
But, after early reviews from critics, it seemed that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania wasn’t everything everyone hoped it would be. Currently holding the second lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in MCU history at 48% (behind Eternals at 47%), the general consensus of the movie is that Jeff Loveness’s script says an awful lot without really saying anything at all. The heavy CGI combined with a large cast, and that Corey Stoll Darren Cross M.O.D.O.K face, weighed down Quantumania, although many have singled out Majors’ performance as a highlight.
Related: ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Actress Reportedly Exits New Movie
That said, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened to a higher than expected box office, and all eyes will be on its second week in theaters to gauge just how much of a hit it is with audiences. And, almost as soon as a new Walt Disney Company-owned movie hits the big screen, the question of when it will land on Disney+ is asked.
Right now, there is no confirmation of when the Marvel film will drop onto the Disney streaming service, with other movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) all having different journeys to Disney+.
Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania makes Disney+ history.
So while it could be multiple weeks until Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania makes its transition to Disney+, the movie has surprisingly made streaming history already.
**Spoilers ahead for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania**
At the end of Reed’s second Ant-Man sequel, there are two post-credits scenes. Similar to how Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) revealed the first tease of Doctor Strange in the Mutliverse of Madness back at the end of 2021, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also provides a tease to an upcoming project arriving in 2023.
Related: Tiny Secret In ‘Ant-Man 3’ Reveals HUGE ‘Fantastic Four’ Future
For the first time in history, an MCU movie has included a full scene from a Disney+ TV show with the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania post-credits showing a clip from the upcoming Loki Season 2. The scene finds Hiddleston’s Loki with Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius watching another Kang Variant, Victor Timely (played again by Majors), on stage.
This scene sets up the forthcoming sophomore season of Loki, which is set to debut sometime this year along with Samuel L. Jackson’s Secret Invasion. What will not be releasing this year, according to reports, are multiple other TV shows.
Marvel Phase Five has already changed.
The Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Iger, recently doubled down on his mission to streamline the streaming business, as well as hand back more creative control to Disney’s subsidiaries. The seeming oversaturation of content has potentially diluted down quality, and recently Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige stated that there would be fewer projects hitting Disney+ this year, with Ironheart, Echo, an Agatha: Coven of Chaos reportedly culled from 2023.
Then, more recently, the studio quietly announced it would be delaying the Captain Marvel (2019) sequel by three months, with The Marvels (2023) opening on November 10 instead of July 28 as originally planned.
Bill Murray (Lord Krylar) and William Jackson Harper (Quaz) also star in the latest movie.
Did you appreciate the nod to Disney+ during the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania post-credits? Let us know in the comments down below!