Hype is slowly beginning to build for the first movie in Phase 5 of the MCU – Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – which is set for release in February 2023. After what most people consider a disappointing Phase 4, Marvel fans are looking forward to more coherence, centred around Jonathan Majors’ ‘big bad’ Kang the Conqueror. But, unfortunately, there may be further disappointments ahead, because it looks like a fan-favourite character may not be returning for Ant-Man 3.
We have to ask the very important question; “what is the point of an Ant-Man film without Michael Peña’s Luis?!” And sadly, it looks like we might be about to find out. Twitter user Charles Trotter has spotted a theatre standee for the upcoming MCU movie, and it looks as though Peña’s name is not on it. Not even in the small-print. Sob.
He says that it look like; “David Dastmalchian is back, but no Michael Peña. William Jackson Harper [who fans are speculating may be playing Reed Richards] and Katy O’Brian are listed as well.” This is in addition to Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, and Kathryn Newton (who plays Scott Lang’s now grown-up daughter). Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer are also back to lend some gravitas, and are joined by Bill Murray.
Luis is famed for his ability to spin a yarn, and answering questions with several hundred thousand words when only five will do. Director Peyton Reed stages Luis’ iconic anecdotes with actors such as Rudd and Lilly mouthing along to Luis’ words, as in the infamous time he was given truth serum. If you need any information five or six times removed from its original source – Luis is your man.
Peña has great chemistry with Rudd, and it will be a crying shame if we don’t get any Scott and Luis scenes this time around. Ant-Man 3 has a lot of plot to pack in, with introducing Kang to the movie strand of the MCU (after he was first seen in Disney Plus TV show Loki), as well as potentially introducing Reed Richards…again. But this does not mean there isn’t space and time for Luis! Bring back Luis!
While we wait to find out if the horrible rumours are true, check out our guide to the upcoming Fantastic Four movie.