William Jackson Harper has become an overwhelmingly popular fan choice to play Reed Richards in Marvel Studios Fantastic Four. As casting for that project is still ongoing, however, Harper found himself another role in the MCU in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and a great new look at his character has been released via Empire.
According to Empire, Harper is playing an telepathic inhabitant of the Quantum Realm named Quaz. Also featured in the photo is Jantorra, played by Katy M. O’Brian, the leader of the Freedom Fighters who look to reclaim their homeland from Kang the Conqueror. Putting two and two together, it would seem that Quaz is a member of Jantorra’s group.
Officially revealing the name of Harper’s character probably won’t stop the speculation that he’s playing a major Marvel character. His character’s name surfaced online some time ago, driving speculation that Harper was playing one of Marvel Comics great Cosmic heroes, Quasar. Speculation has also continued that Quaz is actually Reed Richards and that that the Fantastic Four have been trapped in the Quantum Realm since the 1960s. In all likelihood, Harper’s Quaz is probably just an original character developed by Marvel Studios for the film in place of a group of characters from the comics known as The Micronauts. Due to right’s issues, Marvel Studios cannot use the characters though they appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics. Much like Jantorra’s Freedom Fighters, The Micronauts sought to liberate their homeworld from a vile despot (Baron Karza), so it would seem they may have served as inspiration for the group in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
Source: Empire
