Marvel really wants viewers to believe Scott Lang will die in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania. Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang is perhaps the most unlikely Avenger of them all. Tony Stark and Bruce Banner are scientific geniuses, Steve Rogers is a patriotic super-soldier, and Carol Danvers is a top pilot who wound up flying an experimental jet. But Scott Lang is simply a thief who made the most of his second chance. This makes Scott one of the most relatable Marvel heroes of all, a characteristic only enhanced by Marvel’s continued focus on his family life.
Ant-Man has had a background presence throughout the MCU’s Phase 4, apparently becoming something of a celebrity due to the part he played in saving the universe from Thanos. He’s finally due to return in his own threequel in February 2023, and Marvel has released a final trailer for Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania during the National College Football Championship game. It’s an action-packed epic, and it shows just how important this film is to the MCU’s current Multiverse Saga. The trailer promises that Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania will be the beginning of a new “dynasty,” clearly indicating it serves as direct setup for 2025’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. It also seems to indicate the future is very bleak indeed for Scott Lang.
Ant-Man 3 Trailer Clues Suggest Scott Lang Will Die
Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania will introduce viewers to the main version of Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror, a time traveling warlord who serves as one of the Avengers’ greatest foes in the comics. Kang’s mastery of time means he’s essentially a Thanos-level threat – possibly even beyond-Thanos, because he can always rewrite history to ensure his defeat never happened in the first place. Kang the Conqueror is an enemy who’s fought the entire Avengers to a standstill on many occasions, meaning there’s a delightful power imbalance in the battle between Scott Lang and Kang. The trailer plays up to this, deliberately teasing Ant-Man is completely out of his depth. One shot shows Kang pummeling a defenseless Scott, demonstrating his superiority.
The trailer implies Scott will enter an unlikely partnership with Kang, hoping to recover five years of “lost time” with his daughter. This is a deal with the Devil, of course, and it will inevitably go wrong – meaning there will be a price to be paid. With Ant-Man unable to defeat Kang in combat, he resorts to trickery, establishing a scenario where they “both just have to lose.” For Scott, this probably means he will lose any chance of further relationship with his beloved daughter Cassie (now played by Kathryn Newton). The most obvious scenario is that Ant-Man falls in battle somehow, perhaps in the final shot from the trailer, where he’s shown being overwhelmed by Ant-Man variants – and saying, “I’m sorry, Cassie.“
Ant-Man’s MCU Death Would Massively Help Kang
Ant-Man’s death in the MCU would certainly establish Kang as a force to be reckoned with. Marvel is trying to set Kang up as the next Thanos, but they’re deliberately avoiding a scenario where he sits on his throne for two phases before finally springing into action. Given Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania is being positioned as a direct prologue to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, it’s reasonable to assume he’ll be a constant presence in the MCU from here on. Having Kang start by killing one of the most relatable Avengers would underscore his threat in a very dramatic way indeed.
Will Ant-Man Really Die In Quantumania?
It’s difficult to say whether Marvel really will kill Ant-Man, of course. In the comics, Cassie Lang became the superhero Stature in honor of her father after his death; the MCU has been setting up Cassie’s transformation into Stature since 2015’s Ant-Man, and Scott’s death would be the final step in her evolution. Alternatively, though, Marvel could draw on the build-up to 2015’s Secret Wars event in the comics, where an Ant-Man disappeared into the multiverse for months, returning with a warning of the threats that were coming – too late for the heroes to do anything about them. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty could therefore open with an inversion of Avengers: Endgame, with Ant-Man finally returning to Earth – as a harbinger of doom, rather than the one with the knowledge that will save the world.
MCU trailers certainly aren’t above misdirection, of course, and the MCU is known for its death fakeouts. Viewers would probably be wise to assume Scott Lang’s fate is far from sealed until they’ve seen Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania – and even then, it would be prudent to only believe Ant-Man is truly dead if they’ve seen the body and there are no evident mechanisms for resurrection in the vicinity. It will be thrilling to see what Marvel has planned.