Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Puts Scott Lang Up Against A 'Top-Tier, A-List Avengers Villain'

We're about to enter a brave new frontier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Mad Titan Thanos is dead and gone, multiple members of the core group of Avengers are either dead or retired, and fans have spent an entire phase looking ahead to what major storyline is meant to come next. So, naturally, we can expect the third "Ant-Man" movie to kick off Phase 5 and set the tone for what lies ahead. How fitting is that for the superhero character who was originally created as a founding member of the Avengers in the comics? Having finally seen the live-action counterpart graduate from comic relief to introducing the MCU's next big bad, "Ant-Man" fans would be well within their rights to take a victory lap of sorts — provided that the villainous Kang doesn't put too much of a beatdown on Marvel's tiniest hero, of course.

The upcoming matchup between Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and Jonathan Majors' Kang sure feels like the mismatch of the century and, to their credit, the creative team behind "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" aren't shying away from that reality. Some hyperbolic descriptions aside, fans have been inundated in recent months with quotes regarding the threequel's importance to the overarching MCU, the Avengers-sized plot, and plenty of hype surrounding Kang himself.

Well, we can add another round of Kang-tastic teases courtesy of writer Jeff Loveness. In an interview featured in GamesRadar's SFX Magazine, he gave fans even more reason to dread the coming onslaught of Kang, describing him as "a top-tier, A-list Avengers villain." Read on for the full quotes below!

How do you reset the chess board after Thanos essentially knocked every piece off the board? It's pretty simple, really. You take what makes the next villain so different — like, say, Kang's inherent humanity — and lean into that for all it's worth. That's the plan according to "Quantumania" (and "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty") writer Jeff Loveness, who spoke to SFX Magazine to explain what makes Kang so unique:

"To me it's all about the humanity. Obviously Thanos is a great, iconic villain, but he's also a big purple CGI guy. He's an alien from outer space. The thing I really wanted to lean into is that Kang is a human being."

Part of being human, of course, means that even the character's most fearsome qualities must be rooted in something completely relatable. Hence, Loveness called him a "very lonely" figure, imbuing him with "vulnerability" before we see him fully unleashed in the next "Avengers" flick. He went on to explain:

"Kang is a top-tier, A-list Avengers villain. What do you do when you feel you're not enough against that? How do you step up to face the challenge of this generation, who is Thanos on an exponential level? He's almost this infinite Thanos. I think we're setting things up for a pretty dynamic story. As I'm building to 'Avengers' I want it to feel like a generational struggle [...] And now I think it's time to put the pedal to the gas again, and really take all these new characters that we like and throw them into the fire."

Thought nothing could compare to the havoc wreaked on the Avengers by Thanos? Think again! "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" will set the record straight when it hits theaters on February 17, 2023.