Spider-Man Homecoming 3 can be said to have set the tone for the new era of the MCU - as it's been made abundantly clear from the offset just how bizarre some of this next phase will be.
One of the 25 MCU projects is Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, in which Scott Lang and his friends will face the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror, presumably with the Quantum Realm having an important role in the story. By Phase 4, such a premise may sound fairly ordinary, due to how much the MCU has evolved since a millionaire in a suit of armor was the most high-concept movie Marvel could make one decade ago. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), most famously known as Ant-Man, mirrors that evolution.
Ant-Man 3: Marvel Has Already Teased The Wasp's New Superpowers
Scott Lang's MCU journey started when he got out of jail. At this point, his biggest obstacle was getting fired from Baskin Robbins due to his criminal record, so he went back to burglary and tried to pull a heist on Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). What Scott wasn't expecting was that the old suit and helmet he stole were going to take him on the wildest journey in the MCU: Hank Pym himself recruited him to steal some tech from the Avengers - which led Scott to fight and defeat Falcon (Anthony Mackie) - and then prevent Darren Cross (Corey Stole) from using the Pym Particles for evil means. Scott traveled to the Quantum Realm to defeat Cross and became the first person to return unscathed, cementing his status as a fully-fledged superhero. As far as narrative arcs go, it's perhaps the wildest the MCU has ever provided.
As if that weren't enough of a crazy anecdote, Scott Lang was soon recommended by Falcon to Ant-Man and the Wasp to fight the Quantum-powered Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) only to be stranded in the Quantum Realm at the exact moment the universe was getting decimated.
Against all odds, Scott was brought back from the Quantum Realm by a rat, found out that five years had ed in what he thought was only 5 hours - which meant that his daughter Cassie Lang had already grown up - and learned that half of all life in the universe was snapped out of existence by a purple alien warlord. Scott then gave the Avengers their greatest weapon: the Pym Particles. Thanks to the former burglar, the Avengers were able to invent time travel and send the Avengers on a mission to retrieve the Infinity Stones from alternate timelines. After a brief visit to 2012, Scott helped the Avengers defeat Thanos (Josh Brolin), beating down Chitauri Leviathans one punch at a time.
The next Phase of the MCU will be the craziest, and it's all possible because Scott Lang was fired from Baskin Robbins. He never got superpowers in a freak accident, nor did he have a secret alien father or sought any sort of special abilities. He just became one of the most influential Marvel superheroes overnight and played a crucial role in saving the whole universe, befriending an ant and getting run over by Thomas the Tank Engine along the way. Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania's introduction of Kang the Conqueror - one of the most powerful villains in Marvel comics - only confirms that Scott Lang continues to have the wildest story in the MCU.
