Three generations in one film for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania. How did Peyton Reed deal with the question in the first film of Phase 5 of the MCU, from February 15th in theaters, and above all what does the future of young Cassie Lang and her place among the Young Avengers look like?
Unbelievable but true. After the painful – also due to the pandemic – Phase 4 we have officially entered Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummaniathird chapter of the franchise dedicated to the superhero of ants, promoted to the sound of a book seen in the film and released for real on Amazon (Look Out for the Little Guy). Paul Rudd is once again Scott Lang, the thief turned Avenger, and next to him there is always Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne. If Ant-Man and the Wasp focused on the previous generation that had created the Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), this third chapter in addition to telling what really happened in thirty years of imprisonment of the latter in the Quantum Realm speaks of the new generation of superheroes, represented by Cassie Lang by Kathryn Newton. What is his role in the film and what could be in the future of the MCU among the Young Avengers?
stature
One of the functional ideas of Kevin Feige and company has been using the blip caused by the snap of Thanos’ fingers to pass five years in the life of many characters. Among these, Scott Lang’s daughter whom we met as a child in the first two films and already in Avengers: Endgame we found ourselves teenagers (with the face of Emma Fuhrmann). For her return in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, they opted for a re-cast as the character could play a prominent role in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Multiverse Saga. Kathryn Newton gives Cassie a representation of Generation Z a bit like in the recent past Strange World of Disney. Not only the attention for the ecological aspect of the Earth, but the desire to help anyone in need, not just the people and the stories with which we are directly involved, and this is a reason for confrontation and confrontation with Father Scott, who would like to recover the time lost in those five years, not having seen her grow.
Kathryn Newton: the 5 best performances of the star of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania
Young Avengers Assembled?
What has been being done since Phase 4 (and, if we want precisely, since Endgame) is to present separately those who in the comics formed the Young Avengers group, who rather than taking the legacy from the classic Avengers had their own war to fight. Not just Cassie Lang that in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania becomes staturebut also Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop known in the series dedicated to Hawkeye taken from run of Fraction and Aja, who received a bow and arrow from Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton.
In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness we met America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), the girl capable of traveling in the Multiverse. A potentially very useful power given what the new Saga will focus on: stopping the Big Villain presented in this film, Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) together with all its variants from the other variations of our world. Of the Young Avengers comics also include Tommy and Billy, alias Wiccan and Speed, the wizard and the speedster, reincarnations of the twins born from Scarlet Witch and Vision, who we have seen with various interpreters – mainly Julian Hilliard and Jett Klyne – first in WandaVision and then in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, who is Kang?
Is the future in the team?
Kevin Feige and company’s intent since the very first The Avengers has been to bring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes together on the big screen, and a new group of young superheroes would be no exception. In the Marvel comics, at a certain point, a younger variant of him, Iron Lad/Nate Richards (half-brother of Reed Richards of the Fantastic 4, and here that new film in preparation acquires even more meaning). Destined to become Kang the Conqueror, he wants to try to self-stop and creates the group of Young Avengers together with Teddy Altman/Hulkling, son of the Kree hero Captain Marvel and of the Skrull princess Anelle, shapeshifter with super strength and Eli Bradley/Patriot, the whose costume recalls that of Bucky Barnes, nephew of super soldier Isaiah Bradley. Teddy’s battle name simply derives from the resemblance to the Hulk but in the finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law we glimpsed a self-styled son (Wil Deusner) of the green superhero played by Mark Ruffalo. Is there some connection?
Isaiah Bradley is instead the black Captain America that we met in the second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier played by Carl Lumbly, accompanied by a boy (Elijah Richardson) who is referred to in the credits as “Eli Bradley”. Likely a re-casting as happened for Cassie if the character returns to the shared cinematic universe of the House of Ideas, but the foundations have been laid like many small seeds here and there. Some Young Avengers we have already known them in the MCU, others like Iron Lad (and perhaps Hulkling) we have yet to find out what face they will have, but the direction taken really seems like that. Especially considering that the common thread of Phase 4, ever since that Spider-Man: Far From Home train of the post-Endgame, seems to be the concept of generational inheritance. Phase 5 opened with a film that talks about three distinct generations of superheroes and their different approaches (secrets, love, courage) to the problems of the universe. It is certainly not a coincidence.