Chris Hemsworth’s analysis of Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania perfectly encapsulates why the movie was not a runaway success. In Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and the Ant-Man team find themselves unexpectedly warped into the invisibly tiny world known as the Quantum Realm. As they attempt to regroup and get back home, they run into the villainous ruler of the Quantum Realm, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), and must unite to stop his plot to wipe out different timelines throughout the multiverse.
Unlike its two predecessor, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed commercially, along with seeing a much more middling overall reception. Though not having seen the film himself, Thor star Chris Hemsworth has some ideas for why that is, suggesting in an interview with GQ that the movie’s “save the universe” plot has been seen in “the last 24 films”. Hemsworth also suggests that a franchise like the Ant-Man movies “has to become a bit more personal and grounded,” and his analysis gets right to the heart of what would lead to Quantumania‘s comparatively disappointing reception and box office haul.
The Ant-Man Movies Have Benefited From Their Smaller Stakes
Ever since Ant-Man first entered the MCU with his eponymous 2015 movie, the franchise has been acutely aware of his minuteness as a character within the larger Marvel pantheon. As such, the first two Ant-Man movies were overtly geared towards being smaller-scale stories offering some breathing room in the middle of the galactic-level stakes of the Infinity Saga. In the heist-based missions of Ant-Man and Ant-Man & the Wasp, Scott Lang would not find himself tasked with saving the world or the universe, which would help give him a distinct identity in the MCU.
Even when Scott joined MCU ensemble movies, the stakes would start out relatively grounded with the impact of the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War. It would only be in Avengers: Endgame that Scott and Hope would finally be part of a battle against Thanos (Josh Brolin) for the fate of the universe, and only because the stakes would require the involvement of every hero. Even in doing so, the MCU’s compartmentalized role for Ant-Man would make he, the Wasp, and their fellow cohorts the team handling the MCU’s micro-level superhero work, and the turn Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania would take from that would be surprisingly jarring.
With the MCU having teased the infinitesimal Quantum Realm since the first Ant-Man, Quantumania would seek to finally deliver on it with a kind of hybridized re-working of Ant-Man’s place in the MCU. With Ant-Man and his allies entering a microscopic world within a world, Quantumania would also come with more Avengers-level stakes with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The problem, as Hemsworth would allude to in his interview, is that such stakes are far from out of the ordinary in the MCU and, at the same time, completely new territory for Ant-Man himself.
In Quantumania, the sharp turn of Ant-Man and company having to prevent a cataclysm from being unleashed upon the larger world would task them with a big-scale story with little real build-up. Add in Quantumania being a major pivot point in the MCU’s future with the Multiverse Saga, and the film would find itself laying the foundation for Phases Five and Six with characters who had always been specifically intended for minor big-screen stories. The biggest burden of all for Quantumania would end up being the movie’s antagonist.
Ant-Man 3 Was Doomed As Soon As Kang Was Included
Since Avengers: Endgame concluded the Infinity Saga with the defeat of Thanos, Kang the Conqueror has been positioned as the successor to his villainous mantle in the MCU. While Kang is indeed a multiverse-level threat in the comics, unlike Thanos, Kang’s introduction into the MCU would not be against Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and their intergalactic allies, much to his disservice. Following the appearance of a Kang variant known as He Who Remains on Disney+’s Loki, Kang would make his proper MCU debut in Quantumania. However, by first pitting Kang against Ant-Man, the Wasp, and their team, the equation of his entry would prove to be unbalanced.
Kang’s inclusion in Quantumania also takes out the smaller, more personal stakes of the previous Ant-Man movies, requiring the movie to devote much of its time to the heavy lifting of Kang’s backstory and the threat he poses. In many ways, that would take much of the Ant-Man essence out of Quantumania. In taking Ant-Man and his team into the smallest realm there is, Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania would paradoxically become go too big too fast, and as Chris Hemsworth correctly points out, overlooking the smaller, more personal charm of the Ant-Man franchise sacrifice the very uniqueness that originally made it a success.
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
