Warning: SPOILERS for Ant-Man and the Wasp are ahead!
After keeping its main story fairly self-contained, Ant-Man and the Wasp used its mid-credits scene to tie into Avengers: Infinity War. As Scott Lang was in the Quantum Realm, Hank Pym, Hope van Dyne and Janet van Dyne were dusted away by the Thanos snap, leaving Scott trapped in that other reality. Ant-Man and the Wasp could have left things there, but it would't feel like a Marvel Cinematic Universe installment without a scene being tacked on after the credits finished rolling, and in this case, we saw the giant ant covered for Scott during his house arrest going about its business while the world was going to hell. As for why Ant-Man and the Wasp chose to end things on that note, director Peyton Reed attributed it to wanting the post-credits scene to match the movie's lighter tone. In his words:
Well, I felt like it maybe leavened the drama of the events of Infinity War a little bit, and also we liked the idea that this ant - that Hank and Hope had set up as a decoy for Scott when he's [under] house arrest and had programmed to do what Scott did all day long - that maybe if the ant got enough of this, it might start to like hanging out at Scott's apartment. And maybe it likes playing the drums, and maybe is still staying and playing the drums. It just made us laugh. It seemed like the tone of our movie. The way the tone of our movie would deal with the events of Infinity War.
Given that Avengers: Infinity War was released just two months before Ant-Man and the Wasp, it was expected that the latter movie would somehow call back to the former. Still, like its predecessor, Ant-Man and the Wasp is one of the more lighthearted movies in the MCU, so to go from that to seeing Hank, Hope and Janet disappear alongside half of all other life forms in the universe is a major tonal shift. So as not to end on too much of a downer note, as Peyton Reed informed HuffPost, showing the giant ant playing drums as TV signals were going out and the world was generally going to hell is one way to give the audiences a last chuckle or smirk. At least we can take comfort knowing that Antony Jr. (or whatever its name is) was part of the half of the universe that wasn't erased by a certain purple-skinned Mad Titan.
Avengers: Infinity War marked the beginning of the end for the MCU's Phase 3, and while Ant-Man and the Wasp's main events took place before Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the Guardians of the Galaxy and other assorted superheroes faced off against Thanos and his minions, the sequel still found a way to connect to that devastating twist. We already know that Scott will somehow escape the Quantum Realm and be present for Avengers 4, but like nearly everything else about that movie, his exact role remains a mystery. It's also been rumored that an older Cassie Lang will appear in Avengers 4, meaning that Scott's daughter was also lucky enough to make it out of Infinity War intact.
Be sure to read CinemaBlend's review and To 3D guide for Ant-Man and the Wasp, and check out our 2018 release schedule to learn what other movies come out later this year. The MCU will pick back up next year with the release of Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.
