Quantamania Trailers Sold A Better Ant-Man Narrative

As Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania hit theaters for early viewing on Feb. 16, 2023, it was one of the worst-reviewed MCU films of all time. Despite the opinions of critics, fans seemed to have a better time with viewers giving higher marks to the movie on aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Still, the trailers indicated what could have been an even better story than what made the final cut.

SPOILER WARNING:
Any of the information below may contain spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantamania.

As Reddit user anhedonis539 astutely points out, the trailers made the movie seem more like it would follow the story of Scott Lang helping Kang escape the Quantum Realm in order to make up for years of missed time with his daughter Cassie. They also break down how it could have been a fresh take as far as stories go in the MCU.

“Can you imagine our main hero knowingly trying to help Kang the freaking Conquerer escape? Ignoring everyone else’s pleas for him to stop, or maybe even getting them captured so they can’t stop him?”

However, in the film itself, Scott ends up being more interested in just getting out of the Quantum Realm safely with Cassie, Hope, Janet, and Hank. It makes sense why trailers are cut this way in order to keep from spoiling too much of the story. Still, it’s unfortunate when the potential storylines that the trailers seem to be pitching are better than what actually ends up happening.

At least one part of the story that may still come to fruition is the role reversal of Scott from Endgame to Quantamania. In the fourth Avengers film, it’s his accidental return from the Quantum Realm that leads to the reformation of the Avengers and eventually the defeat of Thanos.

This time around, it’s Scott’s accidental entrance into the Quantum Realm that could lead to the upcoming events in Kang Dynasty. With the Quantamania Kang out of the picture thanks to Scott, that leaves Rama Tut, Immortus, (potentially) Scarlet Centurion, and the Council of Kangs to have free reign over the multiverse.

It’ll be interesting to see if Scott ends up taking responsibility when the Kang variants start showing up even though he couldn’t have possibly known this one was telling the truth. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania can be seen in theaters right now and on Disney+ most likely later this year.