When Thanos decimated the universe with his infinity snap in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, and then the credits started rolling, fans of the MCU had never been left with more questions than answers.
When Ant-Man and the Wasp came out a few months later, audiences were anticipating something to help them get through the theatrical MCU drought that would last until the release of Captain Marvel the following spring.
But by the end of the 2018 Ant-Man sequel, fans were left with even more uncertainty than before. Scott’s go-to gal, Hope Van Dyne, as well as her recently reunited parents, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, were all dusted away as a result of the Mad Titan’s Infinity War victory. This led to a much bigger problem: Scott Lang was left trapped in the Quantum Realm, and anyone who knew about it was snapped out of existence.
Luckily, fans saw the highly improbable return of Scott Lang in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame , but because of the scale of the fourth Avengers film, many key details in the flick only received a casual mention, when they could have an entire film dedicated to those little pieces of information. Luckily, it sounds as though some of these details will be revisited and could play a big role in the MCU’s shrouded future.
NEWS
In a new article featured on Marvel Entertainment’s website , Ava Starr, aka Ghost, and a recap of her MCU backstory from Ant-Man and the Wasp are given the spotlight. The article seems to indicate that Ava’s story in the MCU may not be done yet, hinting that she’s “on her way to being known as friendly,” despite her misunderstood yet devious intent in her MCU debut.
The most interesting point in the article, though, is where the writer makes quick mention of Scott Lang’s time spent in the Quantum Realm between the events of Infinity War and Endgame , and how the events that transpired are “a story for another time.”
“After Janet Van Dyne is rescued from the Quantum Realm, she can sense Ava’s unstable state and is able to partially heal Ava with some of her own quantum energy. Scott eventually goes back into the Quantum Realm to collect quantum healing particles just for her, which of course was mere moments before the Blip happens and he gets stuck there for five years, but that’s a story for another time.”
WHAT THIS MEANS
This single sentence about Scott’s trip to the Quantum Realm being a story worth telling later on cracks open a whole new world of speculation for what the MCU’s future may look like.
In Avengers: Endgame , during the short time that Scott explains to Steve and Natasha that he was stranded for the last 5 years in the Quantum Realm, he really only shares info about the Quantum Realm that is necessary to Endgame’s story. Even Scott’s reunion with his daughter is cut down to a minimum in order to address the looming question of where his daughter is, without spending any more time than necessary developing a side story that won’t further develop the film’s main plotline.
It’s important to remember that although Scott was trapped in the Quantum Realm for the 5 years that he was missing on Earth, Scott makes mention that only 5 hours had passed for him during that time.
To that point, 5 hours is still a lot of time to be trapped in another dimension - much more time spent in the Quantum Realm than any known human other than Janet Van Dyne. Janet had just been rescued from the Quantum Realm in the same film that Scott became trapped in it. Perhaps that’s intentional. With how pivotal Scott’s “Time Heist” idea was to Endgame's plot, it would make sense that Marvel Studios would want to immerse one of their main characters into the Quantum Realm to be able to make this realization, rather than someone like Janet, who had only been around for a few minutes in the MCU.
So then why was Janet involved? Again, very little time is spent during Avengers: Endgame focusing on Scott and his time in the Quantum Realm apart from how it relates to the film’s plot. But Janet Van Dyne was stuck in the Quantum Realm for 30 years. How much time passed for her? After spending hours in the Quantum Realm with no communication with anyone from Earth, Scott will surely have a plethora of questions for Janet, which could very well cause him to dive even deeper into the quantum mess that Hank Pym and his family have buried themselves in for decades.
Fans have gotten to see a couple quick looks at the Quantum Realm over the last two Ant-Man installments, but so much of it is still unexplored in the MCU. Despite this, almost every time the Quantum Realm is mentioned, Scott Lang is somehow involved - even when he didn’t want to be. Scott’s “entanglement” and consistent run-ins with the other-wordly dimension furthers the notion that his involvement with the Quantum Realm itself is still far from finished, which is seemingly reinforced towards the end of Marvel’s recent article about Ava Starr.
