Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the third film in the Paul Rudd-led series, has just swapped premiere days with The Marvels, the upcoming sequel to Brie Larson’s endearing 2019 hit Captain Marvel. After the dust settled following the old switcheroo, Ant-Man will now be the first of the two to hit theaters in 2023, pushing The Marvels back to the summer of the same year. Some fans might read into this news, but it appears that Marvel had some pretty practical motives behind the move.
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Originally, The Marvels was slated for a February 17th release, putting it less than a year away. Meanwhile, Ant-Man 3 had been eyeing July 28th as its premiere date. But Marvel has now flipped the switch on both films, with Ant-Man 3 now taking the earlier slot and The Marvels hanging back to the later one. The idea behind this appears to simply be that Ant-Man 3 is further along in production than The Marvels. So offering more time for the latter to finish things up just seems like a logical decision. They already had the days, so shuffling things around to make things easier on the Marvels team sounds like a quick way to ease their burden.
The Marvels is set to unite a number of fan-favorite characters (and one who will presumably be a fan-favorite when her show premieres). Larson will return as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel, teasing a “bonkers” sequel to Captain Marvel, while Samuel L. Jackson will reprise his role as Nick Fury. They’ll be joined by Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel after her debut in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, while Teyonah Parris will join the cast as Monica Rambeau, who she previously played on WandaVision. So while the wait may now be longer, it will likely only serve to increase the hype levels by a satisfying degree.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania serves as a continuation of the stories told in the previous Ant-Man films as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. It will once again star Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man once again, along with Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne/The Wasp. Also returning are film legends Michael Douglas as Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne, Hope’s mother and the brilliant scientist and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was previously lost in the Quantum Realm for 30 years. The film will serve as a proper introduction to Kang the Conqueror, Marvel’s new “big bad” played by Jonathan Majors and a variant of Majors’ character He Who Remains seen in the climax of Loki’s first season on Disney+.
So even if things have gotten scrambled up a bit, there’s still plenty to look forward to from both films. No matter which comes first, 2023 is certainly bound to be a big year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that’s even after all that 2022 still has left to offer.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will release on February 17th, 2023, while The Marvels will now land on July 28th, 2023.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel
