The Ant-Man and the Wasp movies have thus far been some of the most unassuming in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, appropriately keeping the scale of the action and adventure relatively small, but they’re arguably two of the most underrated films in the franchise. With fun and weird powers to play with director Peyton Reed has crafted a pair of blockbusters that have their own special energy compared to the other films in the MCU – and a lot of that has to do with the strength of the cast.
Thankfully, the key characters in the series are coming back for Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, and we’re not only anticipating their big screen return, but over the moon about some of the new stars that they’ll be working with in the trilogy capper. The truth is that we don’t really know much about the movie or its plot, as Marvel is doing a great job keeping things tightly under wraps, but we do have confirmations about a number of actors and the roles they are playing, and we have broken it all down for you in this handy feature.
Paul Rudd
Sexiest Man Alive Paul Rudd has been an effervescent presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since his debut as Scott Lang in 2015’s Ant-Man, and it’s terrifically exciting that he’ll be back in the role for the adventure that is Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. Rudd was in one of the biggest movies of 2021, taking a key supporting role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but some of his most significant work has been in the streaming series realm, starring in Netflix’s Living With Yourself and AppleTV+’s The Shrink Next Door. He most recently reprised his role as Scott Lang with a voice over performance in the Disney+ animated series What If…?
Evangeline Lilly
Following her performance in Avengers: Endgame, Evangeline Lilly has been in two movies: the thriller Crisis with Armie Hammer and Gary Oldman, and the action movie South Of Heaven co-starring Jason Sudeikis. She’ll reprise her role as Hope van Dyne a.k.a. The Wasp in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, marking her fifth time playing the character (including her role in an episode of What If…?).
Michael Douglas
After decades of waiting, Hank Pym was finally reunited with his wife, Janet van Dyne at the end of Ant-Man And The Wasp… and then the whole Blip thing had to interrupt the special reunion. Thankfully the events of Avengers: Endgame have returned things to normal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania we’ll see Michael Douglas back in his franchise role presumably making up for lost time. Like Paul Rudd, Douglas has also primarily been sticking to the small screen outside of Marvel in recent years, starring on the Netflix series The Kominsky Method.
Michelle Pfeiffer
What exactly did Janet van Dyne go through while living in the Quantum Realm? The character showed up too late in Ant-Man And The Wasp for the film to get too far into the details, but we’ll presumably learn a hell of a lot more in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. We partially presume this because Michelle Pfeiffer will be back as Janet… but the title is also a pretty big hint. Since Avengers: Endgame, the actor has starred in two films – Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil and French Exit – and she is playing Betty Ford in the television series The First Lady.
Kathryn Newton
Following her performances in Blockers, Pokemon Detective Pikachu, and Freaky, Kathryn Newton is most definitely a star on the rise, and it looks like her career is only going to skyrocket further into the stratosphere as she makes her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania she will be playing Cassie Lang (the third actor to do so after Abby Ryder Fortson and Emma Fuhrmann). Cassie is now a teenager because she survived The Blip, and while there has been a lot of hoping from fans that the blockbuster will see her take on the superhero identity Stature, we don’t actually know if that’s happening just yet.
Jonathan Majors
Jonathan Majors made one of the most spectacular Marvel debuts in recent memory playing He Who Remains who in the season finale of Loki, and it’s because of our intense desire to see more of him that our anticipation for Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania is extremely amplified. The movie will reportedly see him play a variant of He Who Remains who is the legendary comic book villain Kang The Conqueror, who is best known for utilizing time travel and spectacularly advanced technology. In addition to Loki, Majors has been doing some phenomenal work in the last couple years, starring in incredible movies The Harder They Fall and Da 5 Bloods, and playing the lead on the HBO series Lovecraft Country.
Bill Murray
Truth be told, we’re probably not supposed to actually know that Bill Murray is in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. All signs point to it probably being a cameo that the production wanted to keep a secret until the film hit theaters. Evidently Murray doesn’t really care too much about keeping things hush-hush, however, because he spilled the beans about his role in October 2021. We don’t know what part he is playing, but anything he’s involved with gets us curious. Like Paul Rudd, he too had a part to play in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and that same year he also reunited with long-time collaborator Wes Anderson for The French Dispatch.
If everything goes according to plan, Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania will debut in theaters as the second Marvel Cinematic Universe film of 2023, arriving a few months after both The Marvels (starring Brie Larson and Iman Vellani) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana). Look for it in theaters on July 28, 2023, and check out our Upcoming Marvel Movies and Upcoming Marvel TV guides to learn about everything that is coming from the MCU in the next few years.
