Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed has a lifelong love affair with Marvel Comics. The mind behind Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man franchise has never been shy about his affinity for the comics and the characters found on their pages and once upon a time pitched a Fantastic Four movie to the execs at Fox. Reed’s first two Ant-Man projects were released following major event films and, as such, were fairly mild in terms of their impact on the greater MCU. In both cases, that meant that the film’s villains definitely weren’t on anyone’s top ten bad guys lists. That’s all about to change with Quantumania.
“I grew up a real Marvel comics nerd,” Reed told EW, “and there are a handful of antagonists in the Marvel comics universe who are all-timers. Loki, obviously. Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four. And Kang the Conqueror.” The last name on that list will make his MCU debut in Quantumania and as can be gleaned from the trailer for the film, he means business.
According to Reed, bringing in a major villain and changing peoples’ perspectives on what an Ant-Man movie can have always been on his mind. “In conversations with Kevin Feige and Marvel, it was like, I want to put Ant-Man and Wasp up against a really formidable villain in this movie,” said the director, “and so we’re doing Kang the Conqueror.”
Even the hardest of the hardcore Marvel Comics fans might have a hard time explaining the totality of Kang to a newbie. He’s just a complicated dude with a lot of time travel stories that make his character hard to follow…because he’s many different characters depending on when he is. While the MCU version will still have some of those qualities, Reed hints that this version of Kang isn’t exactly ripped right from the pages of the comics.
In the comics, Kang has dominion over time, he’s a time traveler. His situation is a little bit different in this movie, which I won’t spoil for you, but he’s someone who, [while] we live very linear lives, from childhood to death, Kang doesn’t exist that way. It struck me as interesting to take the tiniest Avengers — in some people’s minds maybe the least powerful Avengers — and put them up against the most powerful force in the multiverse.
Peyton Reed
As for what that means, fans will have to wait just a couple more months to find out for themselves; however, get used to see Majors and Kang and Majors as not-quite-Kang for the next few years.
Source: EW
