Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is fast approaching, and fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will surely be giggling up the three days between now and the release of the film, where we'll finally see Kang the Conqueror in all of his terrifying glory, and get the boost to Phase Five that we deserve.
Despite Kang's recognition as the major event, we'd be remiss to overlook the rest of Quantumania's surprises, such as M.O.D.O.K., the Freedom Fighters, and a grown-up Cassie Lang.
There's no telling what else this massive dimension might reveal in the next two Ant-Man films. And with respect to the fact that the Quantum Realm wasn't always referred to as the Quantum Realm in Marvel's canon, some may be wondering if this world's original superhero team, the Micronauts, might expand into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
What are the micronauts?
The Micronauts are a family of superheroes that first appeared in Marvel Comics back in 1979. They originate from the Microverse, a vast unknown world that can only be accessed by shrinking down to subatomic size. For reasons that will be discussed next, the Marvel Comics Quantum Realm is functionally identical to the Microverse in all but its name alone.
The majority of the Micronauts team consists of Microverse voyager Arcturus Rann, rebellious warrior princess Marionette, insectoid hero and later Guardians of the Galaxy member Bug, and warrior king-turned-traitor Acroyear. Over the years, other characters have allied themselves with the group.
Could the Micronauts be seen in Quantumania?
The Quantum Realm is the MCU's version of the Microverse, which is where the Micronauts originate. Unfortunately, the most likely explanation for the change of name is the reason we shouldn't put our hopes on Arcturus Rann and his co. starring alongside Scott Lang.
The transformation of the Microverse to the Quantum Realm is likely to be due to Marvel Studios' attempts to dissociate itself from the Micronauts name, which were acquired by Hasbro from Marvel in the year 2009. This, naturally, means that Marvel no longer has full legal access to these characters, making their appearance in Quantumania very unlikely, if impossible.
But we would never allow something as trivial as the law to get in the way of our daydreams, and while we acknowledge the incoming hypothesis as the audacious straw grasp that it is, we're happy to reveal it.
The Quantum Realm and the Microverse are, pound for pound, the same thing in every other aspect other than name, so the Microverse (which, again, is where the Micornauts come from) does exist in the MCU on a technical basis. More importantly, the name “Quantum Realm” is simply the name given to the universe by outsiders who have discovered it, most notably Hank Pym, who coined the term in the first place.
It's certainly possible that the Quantum Realm's deputies would bear Hank's name in the first Quantumania trailer, and that the Microverse's existence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would not imply that Marvel would have access to the Micronauts in turn, which is the main assumption driving this theory.
Nevertheless, this fan theory of a Microverse reveal would be exactly the type of tongue-in-cheek gotcha moment that Kevin Feige would pull on us for no other reason than to keep us on our toes for the Micronauts pipe dream. And while we are fairly certain that the Micronauts would be too much of a challenge for Marvel to acquire for MCU purposes, it's never a wise move to underestimate Feige.
Although the Micronauts would prefer the MCU, Hasbro's decision to pull the film from its schedule as recently as 2020 has resulted in a rather harrowing development hell. Possibly the toy company will get fed up with the IP sooner than we expected, in which case Marvel would not be surprised if the Micronauts return.
Quantumania, Ant-Man and the Wasp, will be released on February 17 in cinemas.