Marvel Studios' furthest out confirmed movie release date is that of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is prepping for its July 2023 release. Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly's Hope Van Dyne will be back for their third solo adventure, and with shooting happening right now it looks to be their biggest film to date with the Quantum Realm looming.
As is the case with Marvel Studios' upcoming projects, the plot for Ant-Man 3 remains largely under wraps outside the additions of Kathryn Newton's Stature and Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror. Filming has shown Paul Rudd jamming out on the streets for a new musical montage, but outside of that, the MCU's secrets for this film remain intact.
Thanks to the Quantum Realm and the upcoming fight against Kang, fans are expecting some of the biggest action sequences in any Ant-Man movie to date when Quantumania debuts. Jeff Loveness, part of the threequel's writing team, even teased some of that action and how it will be brought to life in a recent interview.
Ant-Man 3 Writer on Crazy Wasp Sequence
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness spoke with Bridger Winegar's I Said No Gifts! podcast about the filming process for the Marvel Studios threequel.
Loveness shared how he spent three months with the team during preproduction getting all the information he needed for actors' needs, costumes, and the script. He even teased how he got to look at "3D (virtual reality) scouts of sets" so that he could get a sense of the environment on-screen:
"I was there for, like, three months during preproduction, so its anything from costume people, up-to-the-minute script stuff, you get to meet the actors, you get their points of views on stuff, you get practical things. You have like big goggles to do 3D VR scouts of sets."
The writer explained how Ant-Man 3 is using The Volume Technology, which has been utilized on major Hollywood productions like The Mandalorian in recent years. This helps the team implement the backgrounds and settings right onto a huge screen for the actors in real-time and then adjust things digitally later in post-production:
"I don’t know if you watch The Mandalorian or any of that stuff. There’s this new technology called The Volume, which is basically a living green screen. You can actually put up the backgrounds and the cool visual effects that you want in real-time. Much better for the actors, and then they’ll do digital stuff later to make it look better. It is pretty cool, it reminds me of an old David Lean matte painting or something in the background, or Wizard of Oz."
Specifically, he touched on a scene with Evangeline Lilly's Wasp, who flies around in a forest with the film crew tracking her every move. The Volume helps make that kind of action look like a seamless shot from the film even without a real-world set.
"I had one of those things where I felt like a French person watching that train movie. There was a complicated running sequence where the Wasp, very small, she flies around, she’s going through the forest and the camera’s moving with her and it tracks on the screen, so it just kind of looks like a legitimate shot from the movie, and it’s very jarring to have this gigantic screen moving like a camera."
After Winegar commented on that possibly being "nauseating," Loveness admitted that it was. He also made sure to dissuade fans from throwing on a VR headset and exploring a completely computer-generated world the way he did with this experience.
"It kind of was! Especially in goggles, I don’t recommend throwing an Occulus on your head and jumping into an all CG environment."
Wasp Action Scene Pushing the Limits
Through these quotes from Loveness, it seems clear that Evangeline Lilly is in for another round of epic action sequences after finally suiting up as a hero in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
What exactly this forest sequence entails is a mystery, although it seems that the Wasp will be in her smallest form through at least some of the scene. It could feature Wasp being chased by unknown enemies or just her scouting a location for her, Scott, and her family to regroup and figure out their next move.
Also of note is that Ant-Man 3 is utilizing the ever-popular Volume Technology that's made its mark on Hollywood over the past few years, starting most notably with The Mandalorian. The tech is also being used for Marvel Studios' upcoming sequel Thor: Love and Thunder, and with the Quantum Realm and Pym tech in play, it will only add a new level of excitement to Ant-Man 3.
With both the Wasp and Ant-Man set for another round of intense storytelling, the action that comes with it should be equally thrilling.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set to debut in theaters on July 28, 2023.
