Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- To accurately portray their role in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Paul Rudd spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Peyton Reed.
- Ant-Man and the Wasp utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Peyton Reed.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is a 2018 American superhero film directed by Peyton Reed, the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man and a deliberate palate cleanser released between the devastating cliffhanger of Avengers: Infinity War and the concluding Endgame. The film follows Scott Lang under house arrest after his involvement in Captain America: Civil War, who is recruited by Hope van Dyne, now operating as the Wasp played by Evangeline Lilly, and Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, for an urgent mission to rescue Hope's mother Janet van Dyne from the quantum realm where she has been trapped for 30 years. Their plans are complicated by Ava Starr, known as Ghost, played by Hannah John-Kamen, a woman with molecular instability who needs Hank's quantum technology to stabilize her condition.
Ant-Man and the Wasp distinguished itself within the MCU as a lighter, smaller-scale adventure that prioritized comedy and family dynamics over universe-shaking stakes. Evangeline Lilly's expanded role as the Wasp gave the film a genuine co-lead dynamic, making it the first MCU film to feature a female superhero in the title. The shrinking and growing action sequences were the franchise's most inventive, including a car chase through San Francisco in which buildings, vehicles, and people constantly shift size.
The film earned $622 million worldwide. Its post-credits scene, in which Scott becomes trapped in the quantum realm as his companions are dissolved by Thanos's snap, delivered a devastating gut-punch that connected the film directly to the Infinity War cliffhanger.
