Ant-Man 3 Director Shares Movie Prep Photo Using Mandalorian Tech

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set to use the same filming technology that The Mandalorian uses. Peyton Reed, the director of the Ant-Man films at Marvel, also directed two episodes of The Mandalorian‘s second season: “Chapter 10: The Passenger” and “Chapter 16: The Rescue.” On the set of The Mandalorian, Reed used ILM’s state-of-the-art virtual production technology known as StageCraft, which allows the filmmakers to project a computer-generated background to capture in camera and gives the actors the feeling of working on an actual set in an environment known as the Volume.

Reed has been in pre-production on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with filming set to begin in summer 2021. The film has already cast Jonathan Majors as the villain Kang the Conqueror and Freaky star Kathryn Netwon has been cast in the role of Cassie Lang, a role previously played by Abby Ryder Forston in the first two Ant-Man films and Emma Fuhrmann in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel announced the film as part of Phase 4 and set its release date for February 17, 2023.

Peyton Reed tweeted out a photo of prep work being done on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania from Pinewood Studios. The caption reads “Welcome to the Volume,” referring to the massive, curved LED screens that make up the StageCraft environment. In the photo, Reed appears to be on a snowy mountain, but it is unknown if this is a tease of a location in the plot or just a test environment.

With the COVID-19 pandemic still taking place in parts of the world, ILM’s StageCraft Volume technology allows filmmakers to get their productions underway in safely closed sets while not having to sacrifice impressive visuals and backgrounds. Reed isn’t the only Marvel director implementing this technology. Taika Waititi, who directed the season 1 finale of The Mandalorian, is using the same technology on the set of Thor: Love and Thunder, which is currently filming in Australia.

StageCraft will also allow Reed to incorporate his actors into vastly different environments and make it easier for them to react in an immersive space. One of the largest benefits of StageCraft technology is it allows actors to see and react to their environment, as opposed to having to imagine everything when working against a green screen. Reed could be using the technology to bring the Quantum Realm to life or to showcase various points in time and space that Kang the Conqueror may rule or otherwise exist in.  The various Ant-Man films have highlighted a unique aspect of the character’s powerset, with the first film putting heavy emphasis on ants and the sequel focusing a lot of jokes and visuals on the various size-changing aspects of the characters. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will likely delve deeper into the Quantum technology and the various worlds of the Quantum Realm, which seems like a perfect use for the new filming technology Reed showed off in his image.