After the release of Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel knows you’re wondering what Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp were up to when Thanos showed up. (They seem to have a good feeling that you’re not as concerned about Hawkeye’s whereabouts, which, good call, Marvel.) On Monday, the studio even released a video featuring many of the Avengers actors asking this very question, implying that the latest trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp would get to the heart of this mystery.
Well, like many a Marvel trailer, the PSA was misleading. The second trailer for the Ant-Man sequel dropped Tuesday, and, unless there’s some secret coding that only extreme Reddit sleuths, Bob Iger, and the Illuminati can solve, we got zero traces of Infinity War aftermath or any links to the movie. (The people of San Francisco apparently haven’t been departed just yet.) Ant-Man and the Wasp could certainly change things come July—you can bet on a post-credits scene at least teasing a connection to Infinity War or its sequel—but from the looks of this trailer, the movie will be playing around in its pint-sized universe without much interference. And you know what? Bring it on. Let Ant-Man and the Wasp be a fun summer romp that doesn’t have apocalyptic stakes—and save the Thanos drama for next year.
Like the first Ant-Man movie, it appears that the sequel has—[clears throat]—smaller ambitions than a Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover event. Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne are hoping to learn more about the Quantum Realm, where Hope’s mother, Janet (who’ll be played in the sequel by Michelle Pfeiffer), vanished to years ago. And sure, there may be a link among the Quantum Realm, Brie Larson’s new superhero Captain Marvel, and a time-reversing strategy to defeat Thanos, but the real fun of Ant-Man and the Wasp are the baser pleasures of seeing big things get shrunk down and vice versa. Just look at the Wasp stopping some goon with a giant salt shaker!
Moments like this—along with the return of Michael Peña’s Luis, who will hopefully have more rambling stories to share—are the bread and butter of the Ant-Man franchise. In the trailer, Luis even describes the new villain’s motivations—in inconsequential terms—as wanting to “take over the world, or whatever.” Good: When your hero is a guy who can get really big and really small, and whose first film featured a climactic showdown in a children’s train set and an actual train-sized Thomas the Tank Engine, the movies shouldn’t be taken that seriously.
Given the morose nature of Infinity War’s ending, Ant-Man and the Wasp’s playful tone is the perfect antidote to your Marvel blues, and proof that no franchise can play with variation quite like the MCU. If Ant-Man and the Wasp gives us a couple of hints of Avengers 4 and/or the Captain Marvel movie, that’s just icing on the cake.
