'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania': Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly talk 'Star Wars' comparisons, title's double meaning and the biggest bad yet

Under the stewardship of studio boss Kevin Feige, each new addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe seeks to stake out new territory and tone. However, that mission grows increasingly more challenging considering this week’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania marks the MCU’s 31st movie — and first of its new Phase 5 series.

At first blush, there’s one very obvious difference between the third Ant-Man standalone adventure and its predecessors: The vast majority of the film’s action takes place in the quantum realm, as Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Cassie Lang (Kathyrn Newton) are accidentally sucked into the dwarf dimension where Hope was trapped for 30 years.

And, as film critics have repeatedly pointed out since the movie screened last week, the Peyton Reed-helmed threequel takes some big cues from another Disney-shepherded saga: Star Wars.

The quantum realm, we find out, is inhabited by a colorful cast of CGI-generated characters of never-seen-before species at home on the barstools of Tatooine’s seedy Mos Eisley Cantina.

Despite the ready comparisons, Reed, who also directed the first two Ant-Man movies, doesn’t quite buy the notion that Quantumania is Marvel’s “Star Wars-iest” entry yet.

“I would’ve thought that [title] would’ve gone to Guardians [of the Galaxy],” he says of James Gunn’s interstellar wing of the MCU. “But I’m thrilled to hear it. … We had set that up in the first two movies, [but to] be able to go further into the quantum realm in this movie was a big deal for me. We get to create all this stuff, right? And bring in this team of insane visual geniuses and kind of go through their portfolios and show me these whacked-out concepts for this environment.”

“We were filming with people with crazy makeup and prosthetics,” says Rudd. “And [I knew] these characters were gonna be then enhanced with some sort of visual effect that was gonna be really crazy… They kind of populate this world. … I was also really curious as to what some of these creatures were going to look like. And it does feel like there’s this kind of good and evil thing that’s going on in Star Wars that I could see similarities [to here]. But I would never compare anything to Star Wars. Star Wars is such an iconic, classic film. It’s nice that somebody might say that, but come on, it’s Star Wars.”

There were other notable inspirations. “Always Them! with the giant ants coming in,” Reed says. “Godzilla, no question. There’s kind of a Kaiju battle in there. But I also looked at a lot of Heavy Metal magazine from the ’70s and ’80s. There’s a Moebius influence in there.”

Quantumania also introduces the MCU’s new big bad, Kang (Jonathan Majors). Majors was introduced in variant form (known as He Who Remains) in the final episode of Disney+’s first season of Loki in 2021 and goes into full terror mode here. Janet calls him a “monster who thinks he’s a god.” All those Star Wars-esque creatures we meet in the quantum realm cantina? Scared to death of Kang. And Scott, Hope and family must ultimately battle him in order to get home.

The scene-stealing Majors explains how he got into character as Kang (whose status as “the new Thanos” was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con in July with the announcement that Marvel’s next mega-team-up will be 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty). “Just don’t take the labels,” says Majors, who is on a major roll with credits ranging including The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Lovecraft Country, the splashy Sudance entry Magazine Dreams and the upcoming Creed III. “You are who you are. And you are what you do. I really just leaned into that. They need something to push up against. They need ‘the bad guy.’ But you can’t think you’re the bad guy, cause you’re a human being. … You gotta think you’re doing it all for the right reasons... I'm doing me... Kang gotta Kang!"

(As Lilly first shared with us, Majors also got into character by always arriving on set with music playing around him via a portable speaker; Majors later revealed his eclectic Kang playlist to us.)

Lilly, meanwhile, explains what most excited about her latest go-round playing Wasp is the film’s casting: “I got to work with a lot of women,” she says. “It was really meaningful for me. It was a really comforting experience. I felt so supported. I’ve built beautiful friendships that have gone beyond the film. And there’s an intimacy that you can have with another woman that you just can’t have with a man, so it was really, really awesome.”

The female colleagues Lilly worked closest with onscreen were Pfeiffer, the screen vet Lilly fantasized would play her mother in the series from the beginning, and Newton, who becomes the third actress to play Scott’s daughter Cassie in as many Ant-Man movies.

“This film just honestly felt like it had its own genre,” says Pfeiffer. “It didn’t really feel like a typical Avengers movie, or a typical superhero movie, it’s this mix of real people, with real struggles, who can also turn themselves into ants.”

Both Pfeiffer and Douglas admit they’re getting used to the CGI of it all, though. “That’s the reason I did the first one, I’m always looking for different [new] types of things to do in my career,” says Douglas. “But you find it’s a lot tougher than you think it’s going to be.”

Pfeiffer, especially, gets a lot of screen time in Quantumania.

“Janet van Dyne is more Wasp than we’ve ever seen her before,” says Newton (Blockers, Freaky), whose Cassie gets into the action for the first time as Marvel clearly sets up her future as the superhero known as The Stinger. “We’ve glimpses of her as the Wasp, into her past. But god, Michelle is good in this movie. She’s phenomenal. She’s so good.”

Just as the film explores new realms, the title Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has multiple layers. First, this is no longer just Ant-Man’s series — for the second film in a row, Wasp is right there with him in the billing.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp were the founders of the Avengers in the comics,” Lilly points out. “And they were a team. And what I think I was really into about this movie is we finally see them acting as that iconic duo from the comic books.”

Given Pfeiffer’s major presence and the fact Janet was the original Wasp, the film title could easily be seen as alluding to either character.

“Well, I think it’s both,” Reed confirms. “I think it really sums up the family. I always like that. I even kind of felt that in the last movie because it was original Ant-Man [Hank] and New Wasp [Hope] trying to find Old Wasp [Janet], and now you've got New Ant-Man [Scott] in the margins. I like that quality of it.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens Friday, Feb. 17.

Watch the trailer: