Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed gave fans a hint of where Cassie Lang is in her MCU journey as Kathryn Newton takes over the role.
Newton is set to make her MCU debut in Ant-Man 3 as a more grown-up version of Scott Lang's daughter, Cassie, who's played a key role in both prior movies as Scott found his way as a hero and a father. Initially played by young actress Abby Ryder Fortson in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, the role was then aged up by five years as Emma Furhman played the role in Avengers: Endgame, although the Newton recast was announced in late 2020 for the threequel.
While fans have seen Cassie grow from a small child into a full-blown teenager since she first debuted in the MCU in 2015, her exact age has never been set in stone as her relationship with Scott developed on and off-camera.
Now, as the character evolves into a superhero for the first time, fans have been given a hint at where exactly she is in her journey toward adulthood.
Ant-Man 3 Director Confirms Cassie Lang's Age
Speaking with the Nerdhunter YouTube channel, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed revealed how old Cassie Lang is when fans see her in the MCU threequel.
Reed first looked back to starting his work on the Ant-Man franchise with star Paul Rudd, as both of them wondered whether fans would be able to relate to a character that's "kind of a regular person:"
"It’s really gratifying because, when Paul and I started on the first movie, it was a question of ‘Will audiences accept Paul Rudd as a superhero? Will people accept Ant-Man, a guy who shrinks and controls ants, as a character?’ And they have, and that’s really gratifying, and I think audiences relate to Scott Lang because he doesn’t have superpowers, he’s not a super-scientist, he’s not a billionaire. He’s kind of a regular person who just happens to get caught up in these adventures. But I think we’ve all grown in kind of what we want to do with the movies and how we see the character, sort of the family dynamics."
Reed then went on to say that Cassie Lang will be turning 18 years old in the upcoming threequel, with a central theme being how much time Scott has missed and now wanting to spend as much time with his daughter as possible. Of course, some of that bonding time will come in a battle with Kang the Conqueror as Cassie also works to "find her voice as a hero:"
"To us, after the events of '[Avengers:] Infinity War' and '[Avengers:] Endgame', it really occurred to us that…Cassie’s going to be 18 in this movie! That’s great! The whole theme is time, and how much time he’s missed, and his main motivation is just, ‘I want time with my daughter.’ And now, he’s coming into contact with the villain of this movie, Kang the Conqueror, who sort of has dominion over time. What does that mean to them? But I love the idea of Scott still relating to Cassie as a kid, but she’s not. She’s a young adult now, she has her own ideas about what it means to do good in the world, and she’s trying to find her voice as a hero, and she can also be a little critical of her father."
With Cassie now approaching adulthood, Reed explained how there are some relatable themes tying back to family in this threequel, which have been a big part of all three Ant-Man movies:
"That seemed really rich, something very relatable with families, right? Because you don’t always tell your parents everything that you do, they don’t always tell you everything that they’ve experienced, that’s exciting to us, and the 'Ant-Man' movies are always about families. Throwing all these different complications at the characters and sort of pushing them to their limits, that I think is one of the things Paul and I love about these movies."
Cassie Ready for Avengers Evolution in Ant-Man 3
Cassie approaching her 18th birthday in Ant-Man 3 seems to make sense comparing her to how she looked in past movies, meaning she would have been about 16 years old in Endgame, 11 in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and eight in Ant-Man. This also matches up with quotes from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler, who explained that his movie takes place roughly around the same time as Ant-Man 3, both of them coming about two years after the events of Endgame.
But with Cassie fast approaching adulthood, she also seems to be going down a dangerous path, even in a world where her father is an Avenger. The trailer for the movie that premiered exclusively at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 showed Cassie arrested and in police custody, as her father comes to save her bacon, which likely comes before they're transported into the Quantum Realm alongside Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne.
Now, with only a couple of months until the threequel releases, only time will tell how Cassie will take her own place in a world with more superheroes than ever before.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will debut in theaters on February 17, 2023.
