New ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ still has MCU fans feeling Déjà vu

Something about this new image release from the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has left fans feeling like we’ve seen this play out before. As Scott Lang becomes the first Avenger to meet the big bad of the Multiverse Saga in the upcoming film, fans will be looking forward to how this is all going to play out, at least this time we as the audience know he’s the villain — or do we?

Up until now, Ant-Man and the Wasp haven’t faced huge threats in their solo films but in their third solo outing the teeniest Avenger is facing off against the biggest villain yet, Kang. It isn’t sure yet whether he is the final Kang the Conqueror whom we will meet in 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, or another variant, like He Who Remains from Loki. Regardless, this Kang is a different species altogether from the one we have met already.

Despite the assurance that we haven’t met this character before, this image is giving fans a sense of déjà vu, back to a time when another superhero worked together with a supposed “multiversal” character only to find himself deceived. It also doesn’t hurt that Paul Rudd does look a little like an aged-up Tom Holland in this image.

Peter Parker was all too willing to trust Mysterio, (well he did come with recommendations from Nick Fury, so we give him a bit of leniency for that at least) only to find out that he was being duped all along.

Now, something tells us that Kang won’t be wearing a mask of friendship to trick Scott into doing his bidding in Quantumania, but we doubt he’s going to be letting the minuscule hero in on the whole big picture either. Whatever happens in this film is likely to have huge ripples throughout the MCU’s Multiverse Saga and will likely result in the events of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.

Reed says as much, stating,

“I think it has a profound impact on the MCU. Jeff Loveness, who wrote this movie, is writing The Kang Dynasty as well, so there’s been a lot of discussion about the impact that this appearance of Kang The Conqueror makes. There are big things in store.”

Perhaps Scott will tread with just a little more caution than Peter did, and from the ominous way Kang is introduced in the trailer, we can only guess that Scott will be a lot warier of the sinister character.

Only time will tell how Earth’s tiniest heroes will handle the situation as Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania is released in theatres on Feb. 17, 2023.