Ant-Man & The Wasp executive producer Stephen Broussard opens up about the mysterious Quantum Realm and what its full introduction means to the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward. Over the course of its first decade, the Marvel Studios superhero franchise has continued to expand by exploring previously untapped pockets of the universe. 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy opened up the cosmic side of the MCU that was first introduced in 2011’s Thor, while 2016’s Doctor Strange established the existence of the multiverse. Now, the Ant-Man sequel will do a deep dive into the Microverse.
Initially introduced in 2015’s Ant-Man, the Quantum Realm is “a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity,” as explained by Hank Pym. Not much is known about this alternate dimension yet, but Team Ant-Man is expected to travel to the Microverse in the hope of rescuing Janet van Dyne – Hank’s wife, Hope’s mother and the original Wasp – who has been trapped there for three decades now.
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Screen Rant visited the set of Ant-Man & The Wasp where Broussard talked about the responsibility of fully introducing the Quantum Realm to the MCU. While he was tight-lipped about the specific details about the Microverse, he posed some interesting ideas about how the alternate reality can affect someone’s well-being, especially if one has spent too long trapped in it like Janet has.
Can you talk about introducing the Quantum Realm in a bigger way?
Stephen Broussard [Executive Producer]: I mean, we’ve announced Michelle Pfeiffer, obviously, so we know Janet and the search for her and in the Quantum Realm is a part of the story and that’s obviously kind of the adventure that Scott gets swept on is they’re looking for her and they need his help for a very specific reason. Again, another thing we just barely scratched the surface of in the first movie so kind of expanding on what that is. It’s like this really trippy, mind-trippy place down there, as glimpsed in the first movie, but what does that mean? How deep do you have to go? Does it change as you get deeper? Is it a landscape? Is it just a weird thing where your mind can’t handle it?
So we’ve kind of dug into that a little bit more and try to define it for what it needs to be for the film and for the story that Janet has experienced down there a little bit cus it’s such a huge part of it. And does time operate differently down there? You know, like all these sort of weird questions that are on the forefront of the actual science, if you dig into it, which can be very dense. It’s kind of an open book. I mean obviously it’s the MCU version of what’s down there but, you know, in a lot of ways we’re almost approaching it like interplanetary in a weird way, you know, what I mean? Like, as if you could go down there and experience another world, you know, and that if you kept going maybe you’d find other things or if you came back up it’d be completely different at this level. Like, it’s a new frontier sort of speak. It’s kind of a fun new door to kick open in the MCU.
Previews for the upcoming sequel tease of a new exploratory vessel that would allow Scott and Hope to visit The Quantum Realm without the need to go subatomic and risk being trapped in it just like what happened to Janet. But as Broussard hinted, while they might be able to retrieve the original Wasp, it’s possible that her years in the alternate dimension would have significantly changed her. Things are more likely going to be clearer once the forthcoming Peyton Reed-directed sequel divulges more information on how the Microverse truly works.
Aside from Ant-Man & The Wasp, the Quantum Realm will also play a part in Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, although it’s uncertain how it’ll fit in Carol Danvers story just yet. Considering how the alternate dimension is poised to become a pivotal concept in the MCU moving forward, not to mention what has been established about it so far, a popular theory suggests that it could pave the way for time travel in the MCU without the need for the Time Stone. This means, that it could very well be the key to how the Avengers could ultimately defeat Mad Titan Thanos in Avengers 4.
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