Having last seen Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne help save the universe in Avengers: Endgame, the superheroic duo are set to finally return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe next year in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Until today, our reunion with these characters and various other familiar faces was set to take place towards the end of July 2023. Well, good news, the third Ant-Man movie is now coming out sooner than that, but the tradeoff is that we’ll have to wait longer for another Marvel movie.
Marvel Studios has decided to pull a release date switcheroo with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels, i.e. the Captain Marvel sequel. As such, Quantumania will now come out on February 17, 2023, while The Marvels has taken the July 28, 2023 slot. According to insiders who spoke with Variety, this is happening because Quantumania is further along in the creative process, with the threequel having finished principal photography while The Marvels isn’t done with shooting just yet.
So while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is holding onto its May 5, 2023 slot, now the order has been reversed for the MCU movies preceding and following it. Granted, this isn’t great news for the people looking forward to Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan teaming up, but for those who’ve been craving more Ant-Man and Wasp action, there’s only 10 more months to go until that happens. Ironically, Quantumania had previously held that February date until the MCU calendar was adjusted back in October 2021, so it’s back in familiar territory.
Although no specific plot details for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania have been revealed yet, we do know it will feature Creed III’s Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. Majors previously played a Kang variant called He Who Remains in Disney+’s Loki series, but now he’s getting to hit the scene as the main Kang, who’s expected to be one of the MCU’s next big overarching antagonists. Quantumania will also bring back Michael Douglas as Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, while Kathryn Newton will take over as Cassie Lang. Behind the scenes, Peyton Reed reprised his directorial duties and Rick and Morty’s Jeff Loveness penned the script.
As for The Marvels, we don’t know anything specific about its story yet either, aside from the fact that it will build off the events of Captain Marvel, WandaVision and Ms. Marvel (which premieres June 8 on Disney+). However, along with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury being along for this ride (Jackson also indicated he’s in Ant-Man 3), Saagar Shaikh, Zenobia Shroff and Mohan Kapur will reprise their respective Ms. Marvel roles, and Zawe Ashton and Park Seo-joon have been cast in undisclosed roles. Candyman’s Nia DaCosta sat in the director’s chair for The Marvels, working off a script written by WandaVision’s Megan McDonnell.
Regarding the MCU’s nearer future, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will work its magic in theaters on May 6, followed by Thor: Love and Thunder’s arrival on July 8. Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more major updates on upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows.
