Wild Speculation After ‘Ant Man’ Reveals

The latest superhero movie set in what is called the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is Ant Man, and while it is not as big a hit as the blockbuster Avengers, Captain America or Iron Man movies, it is an undeniable hit, and nearly as well reviewed as Captain America: Winter Soldier. But this isn’t a review, it is a seat-of-my-pants, wild-ass speculation on the implications of some of the reveals in the movie.

So, fair warning, there are major Ant Man SPOILERS AHEAD! And possible spoilers for the general future of the MCU, so if you aren’t familiar with the Infinity War story line from the comics and don’t want to know anything about it, stop reading.

Seriously, SPOILERS.

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The mid-credit scene at the end of Ant Man reveals that Hank Pym’s daughter Hope is going to be donning a suit and the name of her late (maybe?) mother’s heroic alter ego, the Wasp. I say maybe because we know from the movie that Janet Van Dyne disappeared into the sub-microscopic world (called the quantum realm in the movie). Hank assumes she is dead, but Scott Lang (the title Ant Man) manages to come back to the full-size world after he himself winds up in that quantum realm.

In the shrinking scene, as the site Nerdist points out, Scott may see a shadowy version of the Marvel cosmic character Eternity, as the word “eternity” at the end of a memory of something Hank said echoes in Scott’s mind.

Wild speculation time: Marvel will have Hope go into the quantum realm to rescue her mom, who has been in a time-meaningless limbo since she disappeared. The way she gets back is with the help of the power that Eternity has — the Time Stone.

Yes, one of the Infinity Stones that hasn’t yet been revealed could be in the hands of Eternity (whose existence is teased in Ant Man).

But in what movie would this happen? There is no mention of an Ant Man sequel in the Marvel movie plans that have been announced out to 2019. And it would have to happen before the Avengers: Infinity War movies (or at least within the first one). Could there be a Wasp solo movie? Not bloody likely, if there isn’t a Black Widow one and it took all but an act of Congress to get a Captain Marvel movie on the docket.

That leads me to the ugly speculation — that this story line will be part of the Captain Marvel movie (after all, Eternity is really a space-story character in the comics). And Marvel will put Hope as The Wasp, and maybe even Black Widow, all in one movie as its “chick” superhero movie, in a misguided attempt to satisfy as many of those pesky demanding ladies as possible. (That was sarcasm in case it’s not clear.)

Hear’s an idea: The Wasp will be a major supporting character in Doctor Strange. After all, Doctor Strange is where Eternity made his first and most of his early comic book appearances (one of those was the first comic I ever read, finding it thrown away in the corner of our southern field.) And there are two Infinity Stones left to find, the Time Stone and the Soul Stone. While everyone wants the Soul Stone to be where it should be in the comics, with Adam Warlock, there has been only one possible hint of his existence — something that could be his incubation cocoon in the Collector’s menagerie in Guardians of the Galaxy.

With Doctor Strange introducing the world of the supernatural to the MCU, it makes sense that the Soul Stone is part of his story line, even though that isn’t how it happens in the comics. That would mean something that has not yet happened in the MCU, the appearance of two Stones in one movie. That seems unlikely, which makes the idea of a Captain Marvel movie with the Wasp in it more likely. Or…

Maybe Strange and the Wasp go into the quantum realm and get that Time Stone, and Captain Marvel’s story involves Adam Warlock and the Soul Stone. That would be my top choice — OK, second choice behind the Wasp getting her own damn movie.

What do you think? Any chance that any of these crazy ideas will happen? Let us know in the comments.