Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Director Felt He 'Owed The Audience' An Explanation About The Quantum Realm [Exclusive]

Who would have known when "Ant-Man" debuted about 8 years ago that Scott Lang's (Paul Rudd) trilogy of bite-sized family-friendly adventures would eventually become the entire center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Three words would change the fate of the Avengers forever: The Quantum Realm. It was a concept first mentioned in 2015's "Ant-Man," discovered by scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) with his invention of Pym Particles, which allows the user to shrink and grow beings or objects to different sizes. Together, Hank and his wife, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) were the original heroic duo, Ant-Man and The Wasp, until Janet sacrificed herself to disable a nuclear weapon by disappearing into the Quantum Realm.

Pym, dedicated to researching the Quantum Realm in an effort to find his wife again, eventually handed off the Ant-Man mantle to cat burglar with a heart of gold (and an engineering degree), Scott Lang, and The Wasp to his daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). In the 2018 sequel, "Ant-Man and The Wasp," the family unit was able to successfully save Janet from her 30-year entrapment, and soon Scott's banishing to The Quantum Realm became a major plot element in "Avengers: Endgame," allowing the protagonists to go backward in time in their pursuit to defeat "The Mad Titan" Thanos.

This week, /Film's own Jeremy Mathai spoke with "Ant-Man" franchise director Peyton Reed about his newest sequel, "Quantumania." In the interview, Reed says that he felt that showing us the intricacies of the life Janet led in the Quantum Realm was both necessary for the character, but also something he "owed to the audience."

Despite the multiple mentions and instances of "going Quantum" in the MCU so far, there's still potential lore that's completely untapped. In "Avengers: Endgame," it served as a plot device to help introduce time travel to the story (in a way that still doesn't quite make sense). But "Quantumania" has even higher goals — as the opener to Phase 5 of the MCU, it's a crucial step in establishing the Multiverse Saga, which will probably culminate into something even bigger and more ambitious than what was already achieved with "Infinity War" and "Endgame."

Here in "Quantumania," The Quantum Realm is characterized as an entire, hidden world that defies space and time. Despite the "Ant-Man" films usually being smaller and inconsequential fare compared to the rest of the franchise, the third entry feels instrumental to Kevin Feige's master plan. So, director Peyton Reed figures, if we're going to The Quantum Realm again, why not tap into some character drama along the way? Reed shares his thought process:

"We sort of dipped our toe into the Quantum Realm in the first couple of movies. But we owed the audience, I think, this explanation of what the hell was Janet van Dyne doing in the Quantum Realm for 30 years. She wasn't just wandering around this void with a walking cane for 30 years. She had a whole, full life down there."

The end of "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and the epilogue of "Avengers: Endgame" solidified Scott, Hope, Cassie (played in "Quantumania" by Kathryn Newton), Hank, and Janet as one, big, wacky family unit. Peyton felt that with the third entry, it was time to raise the stakes, put this family through the wringer, and test their bonds with each other. "And we loved the idea, too, of starting this movie with people keeping secrets," Reed says. "The idea of what do family members not tell each other, and that Janet was really withholding a lot about her time down there, and maybe even had a version of PTSD because of what happened."

The huge draw to "Quantumania" is the return of Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, the main villain of the Multiverse Saga of the MCU that Feige promises to even outshine Thanos. He was first introduced in the season finale of the Disney+ "Loki" series, and judging by the scope of his power displayed so far, we're not sure how our Ant-Family is going to make it out alive.

Curiously, Reed hints towards a vague connection between Janet and Kang that will be very interesting to see play out:

"And of course, we reveal throughout the course of the movie that she had a very full life down there and, in fact, came into contact with Kang the Conqueror, and it did not work out so well for either of them."

Why is Janet so dead set on putting her life in The Quantum Realm behind her? What secrets is she keeping from her family? We'll find out when "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" releases in theaters on February 17, 2023.