How long was Janet van Dyne in the Quantum Realm?

The MCU is headed toward a major shake-up in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which promises the next Avengers-level threat in Kang.

The upcoming flick is one of 2023’s most anticipated, finally putting Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang at the head of a franchise-defining film. Already touted as a solid, if slightly disappointing, start to the MCU’s Phase Five, the upcoming release hurls Lang and his family into the Quantum Realm, where they’re set to face off against the intimidating and staggeringly powerful Kang the Conqueror. 

At least one member of the Ant family has extensive experience in the Quantum Realm, thankfully, which should give the group a slightly easier time of it. Janet van Dyne, Hope’s mother and Hank’s formerly lost wife, was trapped in the Quantum Realm up until the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, and she’ll bring years of expertise in the itty-bitty world to Quantumania. But just how long was Janet trapped in the Quantum Realm before she was rescued?

Janet van Dyne spent decades in the Quantum Realm

For years before her disappearance, Janet worked alongside her husband as the Wasp. In a fateful mission in 1987, only seven years after Hope was born, Janet sacrificed herself by shrinking down to subatomic size, and in the process saved millions. She was assumed lost, but years later, Scott Lang’s journey to — and return from — the Quantum Realm meant survival was a possibility.

Ant-Man and the Wasp’s plot saw the return of Janet van Dyne, after her husband, daughter, and Scott rescued her from her longtime prison. In total, she lived in the Quantum Realm for a full three decades. She spent more than 30 years in the imperceptibly tiny dimension before an entanglement with Scott allowed her to communicate with her family, and ultimately make her way back to regular size.

Janet spent all of the ’90s, 2000s, and much of the 2010s in the Quantum Realm. She was rescued in 2018, which means she missed out on both Bush administrations, Friends, and the entire Kardashian rise and fall. Marvel’s math doesn’t quite add up, when you consider the hard dates provided by sites like CBR. According to the MCU, Janet disappeared in 1987 and reemerged in 2018, which is when Ant-Man and the Wasp is set. 

This should mean that, despite broad claims that Janet was missing for 29 years, she was actually lost in the Quantum Realm for a full 31. She missed out on almost all of her daughter’s life, but made it back in time to — hopefully — see Hope’s relationship with Scott evolve, and meet her surrogate granddaughter in Cassie Lang.