5 Things We’re Hoping to See On-Screen in This Weekend’s ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’
On July 6, Paul Rudd returns to the silver screen as Scott Lang in Ant-Man and The Wasp, and this time his female counterpart, Hope VanDyne (played by Evangeline Lily), joins the fight as the film’s titular size-changing siren.
Following the emotional gut-punch that was Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel is now going to serve us a refreshing palette cleanser with the lighter, comedic action of Ant-Man and The Wasp. (Before seeing it this weekend you should note that its story takes place before the events of Infinity War.)
So far initial reactions to Ant-Man and The Wasp have been overwhelmingly positive, with Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn tweeting:
#AntManAndTheWasp is everything you want it to be. Hilarious, sweet, moving, & wall-to-wall fun. Killer work, @MrPeytonReed! And great performances by @EvangelineLilly, @hannahjk1 & of course @Dastmalchian. I loved it! (Pro tip: see it before Avengers 4!)
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 26, 2018
Before we walk into the theater, here are 5 things we’re hoping to see in Ant-Man and The Wasp:
5. More Michael Peña
Playing one of Scott Lang’s partners in crime, Luis, in the first Ant-Man film, Peña easily became a fan-favorite. His penchant for telling over-long, drawn-out stories provided some seriously memorable, comedic scenes in the vastly underrated (in my opinion) original movie. From the TV spots we know Peña will be appearing in the sequel but not to what extent.
4. Villains
From the trailer and the poster we know that Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost is the featured villain. Because the comic book version of the Ghost is more of a corporate spy/terrorist, I’m hesitant to think she’s actually going to be the main big-bad. It’s more likely that she’s hired by the big-bad.
My guess is that Walton Goggins, cast as Sonny Birch, will be our main villain. I mean, have you ever seen Walton Goggins play a good guy in anything?
3. The Quantum Realm
In the 2015 movie Lang was warned by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), the original Ant-Man, that shrinking down too far, to the subatomic level, would thrust him into the Quantum Realm. In the trailer we see that Pym has built a ship capable of traveling safely into the Quantum Realm. It’s also rumored the Quantum Realm is responsible for Ghost’s special abilities of “intangibility,” which might just be her phasing between this universe and the Quantum Realm.
I also think the QR (I’m tired of typing “Quantum Realm”) will play a major part in Avengers 4 because Hank Pym tells Scott that in the QR space and time don’t exist, which could make it a vehicle to start to undo all of the damage done by Thanos in Infinity War.
2. The Wasp in Action
If Ant-Man showed us anything it’s that size-changing during battle can lead to some crazy imaginative, ultra-cinematic fight choreography. The idea of Evangeline Lily portraying everyone’s favorite pixie-with-a-punch on-screen makes my inner fanboy squeal with delight.
The Wasp shares Ant-Man’s Pym Particle-spawned shrinking powers as well as wings for flight and blasters … for blasting. I can’t wait.
1. Michelle Pfeiffer!
… I mean. MICHELLE PFEIFFER! She’s playing Hank Pym’s wife and the original Wasp, Janet VanDyne, who shrank down too far to stop a missile on a mission and got stranded in the Quantum Realm. One can assume the whole point of Hank’s ship is for a rescue mission to save Janet.
Let’s face it, Michelle Pfeiffer has been a gay icon since she played Catwoman in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns in 1992. OK, fine, for me it was Grease 2 in 1982. Happy?!
