Marvel Studios has its fair share of important anniversaries coming up. The biggest one will come in May 2028, marking 20 years since the release of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first entry, Iron Man. However, another milestone just came and went, and there isn't nearly enough buzz about it, even though it focuses on an event the franchise can't sweep under the rug.
In 2023, the powers that be at Marvel Studios wanted to start Phase 5 of the MCU with a bang. The decision was made to have Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man, face off against iconic Marvel villain Kang the Conqueror in his third solo movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. All the marketing for the movie made it seem like the stakes were higher than ever for the titular hero and his friends. The final product was a different story, though, as quips and clunky bits consistently cut the tension, with the final nail in the coffin being an army of ants thwarting Kang's plans.
At the end of the day, Kang's official MCU debut left a lot to be desired. But he did make an impact on one character, Scott, who, at the end of Quantumania, had a bad feeling that his days fighting for the safety of the multiverse were only just beginning.
With Kang out of the picture, though, Quantumania's haunting final moments have largely been forgotten. The MCU has moved on to bigger and better teases. That means a bit of backtracking is in order because the only way for the MCU to move forward is to address every mile marker on the Multiverse Saga's long, windy road.
Ant-Man 3 Should Be as Important as Any Other Multiverse Saga Project
Whenever it's time for another team-up movie, the MCU will go out of its way to tell its audience which projects and characters are most important. Right before Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: The Winter Soldier featured a post-credits scene that introduced the Maximoff twins, who went on to play important roles in the battle against the titular robot.
Avengers: Doomsday is following the same pattern. All three of Marvel Studios' 2025 movie releases used their post-credits scenes to set up Doctor Doom's arrival, and it's fair to assume the characters that appeared in them are going to have a thing or two to say about his upcoming transgressions.
When Doomsday was still Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Scott was surely in line for a similar role. However, things have changed, and while he's still going to appear in the fifth Avengers movie, there's no guarantee he will be on the frontlines.
Moving the chess pieces around isn't a problem; it's par for the course with superhero movies. What Doomsday can't do is minimize Scott's experiences and act as if he's just been twiddling his thumbs after having a run-in with an Avengers-level threat. No one is saying Quantumania has to land the Multiverse Saga plane, but it deserves better than ending up in the forgotten pile for its character development alone.
