This week we’ll be getting the first Marvel movie of Phase 5 with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Despite being the smallest of Marvel’s Avengers, Ant-Man’s third movie is a big deal for the MCU. If you want to be fully prepared for this blockbuster instalment, there are a few Marvel titles you should probably watch first.
Everything you should watch before Ant-Man 3
Ant-Man
As is the case with any Marvel superhero, the best place to start is their origin story, which in this case is 2015’s Ant-Man.
The first Ant-Man introduces us to Scott Lang, a well-meaning pro-thief who struggles to hold down a job after his release from prison. After taking on a burglary job he comes across a super suit that allows him to shrink at will and eventually steps up to become the superhero known as Ant-Man.
Captain America: Civil War
Ant-Man is next seen in Captain America: Civil War, where he is recruited onto Steve Rogers’ side of the Avengers’ schism. During the climactic airport battle, Scott reveals his new ability to grow to superhuman size, but eventually, he and the rest of Cap’s team are arrested.
Ant-Man and The Wasp
The dedicated Ant-Man sequel saw the Pym family take an even larger role, with Scott travelling to the Quantum Realm to find Janet Van Dyne, Hope’s long-lost mother. Ant-Man and The Wasp gives us important information on the Quantum Realm so is well worth a watch before the upcoming third movie.
Avengers: Endgame
A Marvel movie that you’ll likely find on every what-to-watch list from now until the end of time is Avengers: Endgame. The movie marked a pivotal moment in MCU history as the Avengers came together in an epic time heist to undo Thanos’ snap and restore the lives of everyone who was lost.
Ant-Man had an important role to play in Endgame. After he avoided the snap by shrinking down into the Quantum Realm, Scott returned to the remaining Avengers with the idea that would save everyone: time travel.
He also reunited with his daughter Cassie, who had grown up into a teenager in the time he was gone, which is a plot point that will be addressed in Quantumania.
Loki
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will expand on one very important villain in the MCU saga, that being Kang the Conquerer. This isn’t Jonathan Majors’ first Marvel appearance, however, as he also played the mysterious He Who Remains in Loki’s final episodes.
As the man warned Loki and Sylvie, his variants are much more dangerous and we’ll see why when we meet Kang in Quantumania. But before that watch Loki to catch up on the character’s backstory and his involvement with the Time Variance Authority.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Ok, bear with me on this one. Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ant-Man don’t really have any direct correlation, but they’re dealing with similar subject matter.
No Way Home was another instance of the multiverse and variants being introduced in the MCU as Peter Parker inadvertently opened a door to the multiverse when trying to get the world to forget the true identity of Spider-Man.
If you want to familiarise yourself with some of the rules and concepts of the weird world of the multiverse before Quantumania, this is the movie to do it. It’s also just a good movie and worth a watch any day of the week.
Bonus: Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K
While not officially part of the MCU, the animated TV series Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K is a fun introduction to one of the notorious Marvel villains we’ll meet in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
In the series, M.O.D.O.K (aka Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing) is depicted as a megalomaniac villain who runs his corporation, A.I.M, into the ground and is made redundant. Left to deal with his family, he faces a mid-life crisis.
The voice cast includes Patton Oswald, Ben Schwartz, Aimee Garcia and Melissa Fumero, and it’s an enjoyable watch if you want a humorous look at the MCU’s new villain.
All the series and movies above can be streamed in Australia on Disney+ (and Spider-Man: No Way home is on Binge). Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will release in cinemas on February 16.
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