In a tightly interconnected cinematic universe consisting of twenty films made by a range of different writers and directors, it’s only natural that a few small inconsistencies between movies will go unchecked. Such is the case, perhaps, with Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, with a brief bit of dialogue in the former seeming to contradict the events of the latter.
While the Russo Brothers’ ensemble blockbuster was the franchise’s most ambitious crossover event to date, two notable absentees amidst the action were the old Avengers staple Hawkeye and Ant-Man himself, Scott Lang. To explain their nonattendance, the character of Black Widow’s given a quick line about the pair both being on house arrest after breaking international law in Captain America: Civil War.
However, in Scott’s next film, which is set largely before the events of Infinity War, we see that Ant-Man’s housebound period concluded before Thanos’ forces started making trouble on Earth, raising the question, once more, of why he couldn’t join the resistance against the Mad Titan. Speaking to the Empire Film Podcast, Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed had this to say on the matter:
“Listen, maybe they just didn’t think he was up to the task. It’s still to be determined what the Avengers actually think of Scott Lang. And again, I like the idea that at the beginning of this movie that he’s not Ant-Man. And he’s kind of wrestling with the idea of ‘Is there space in my life to be Ant-Man? I know I like it.’ But overtime he’s put on that suit, it’s brought him a lot of trouble.”
Reed then goes on speculate on how Scott and his associates might have spent their time in between the film’s happy pre-credits conclusion and its darker post-credits sequence.
“I mean, we have to assume that Hank and Janet spent a little time in their seaside house, wherever on this remote island, and came back and got to work on this Quantum experiment,” Reed said. “So, you know, it is undetermined, but it’s not that long a period of time, because we really do play our characters [where] they are sort of in their bubble doing their thing and really unaware of all the events that are happening.”
While the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp happily do their own thing for the bulk of the movie, the grim events of Avengers: Infinity War finally catch up with them in that post-credits sequence, which leaves several of the characters as dust in the wind and Scott stuck in a pretty difficult situation. It’s likely that this cliffhanger won’t be resolved until Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3rd, 2019, either, at which point, you can expect Ant-Man to play a far more active role in the fight against Thanos.
