Earlier this month, Disney+ subscribers got to see She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 conclude with one hell of a fourth wall-breaking finale. Among the familiar characters who stopped by for the episode was Jameela Jamil’s Titania, who antagonized Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters on and off over the season. While it remains to be seen if She-Hulk will return for a second season (showrunner Jessica Gao doesn’t even want to think about that right now), word’s come in that one of Jamil’s costars from the critically acclaimed NBC series The Good Place has entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
William Jackson Harper, who played Chidi Anagonye opposite Jameela Jamil, Kristen Bell, Manny Jacinto, D’Arcy Carden and Ted Danson in The Good Place, will appear next year in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Variety shared that his role “remains a closely guarded secret,” so it’s likely we won’t learn the identity of his character until the movie actually comes out. This casting news follows a few days after the first Quantumania trailer premiered online.
Along with his time on The Good Place, which ran from September 2016 to January 2020, William Jackson Harper’s notable credits include Midsommar, Dark Waters, the 2009-2011 revival of The Electric Company, The Underground Railroad and Love Life Season 2. He was most recently seen starring opposite Kirstin Milioti in the dark comedy show The Resort, which can be watched with a Peacock subscription. He’s also set to appear in the upcoming Netflix limited series A Man in Full, which co-stars Jeff Daniels and Diane Lane.
Without even a hint about William Jackson Harper’s role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, there are numerous possibilities for who he could be playing. However, let’s remember that this movie’s main antagonist is Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, and in the comics, Kang is frequently depicted as a descendant of Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic, one of the smartest people in the Marvel universe. We know there’s a Fantastic Four reboot on the way being directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman, and Harper knows his way around playing intelligent men, with Chidi especially falling into the brainiac category on The Good Place. Although John Krasinski appeared as Earth-838’s Reed in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home showed that variants come in all shapes and sizes.
So is there a chance that William Jackson Harper is appearing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as Reed Richards, a.k.a. Kang the Conqueror’s ancestor? I wouldn’t necessarily put money on it, but it seems like a solid possibility right now. I doubt Reed would have a major presence in the threequel given everything that’s already packed in (including MODOK causing trouble), but we all know how much upcoming Marvel movies are teased in end-credits scenes. Perhaps Harper could cameo as Reed in such a scene, setting the stage for his full debut in early 2025. With Jameela Jamil having been cast as She-Hulk’s arch-enemy, it would be cool if Harper was also cast in a prominent MCU role rather than simply bring a minor character to life.
Besides Jonathan Majors, William Jackson Harper’s cast-mates on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania include Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne and Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang. The Peyton Reed-directed and Michael Waldron-written movie comes out on February 17, 2023.
