Ant-Man and the Wasp’s Quantum Realm explained, it holds the key to Avengers 4

The Quantum Realm plays an important role in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp, but it’ll play an even more significant part in Avengers 4. Here’s explaining the Quantum Realm.

Over the last decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has only grown bigger. The sets are larger, the villains are bulkier, the stories are bigger and so is the box office collection for every new movie. However, after the behemoth that was Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Studios is going smaller but still with big intentions at heart.

This image released by Marvel Studios shows Paul Rudd in a scene from Ant-Man and the Wasp.(AP)

With Ant-Man and the Wasp releasing this Friday, the MCU is bringing back the tiny hero with enormous courage back on the big screen. The shrinking superhero, played by Paul Rudd, has found a new partner in Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp. Together, they will save the world (before Thanos destroys it anyway) and bring her mother back from the Quantum Realm.

What’s the Quantum Realm, you ask? If you have forgotten all about the first Ant-Man movie, we are here to help you out, give a little primer about the fictional-science of a Quantum Realm and tell you why it is important not only for this film but also for the ones that will follow it next year—Captain Marvel and Avengers 4.

In 2015’s Ant-Man, Dr Hank Pym tells Scott Lang about what happens to someone when his regulator breaks while he they are shrinking themselves using the Pym Particles. It means that one would enter a Quantum Realm. “A reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity,” he tells him. He also tells him of his wife, the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne, and how he lost her in the same manner years ago. Later in the movie, Scott’s shrinking device breaks and he becomes smaller than an atom and gets trapped in a subatomic limbo.

Of course, he is soon able to return to his normal size. This is something Pym had never seen before and we believe he wants to try the same to bring his lost wife back in the sequel.

But a lot has happened in the time between these two movies and bringing back Pym’s wife is just one of the many uses of the Quantum Realm. In the comic books, the Quantum Realm is known as Microverse. Just like our universe, it is also made of different planets, eight to be exact. And while we did not see any life-form when Scott made his trip, different life-forms do exist in this universe. It was first introduced in a Captain America comic in 1943. Not only Steve Rogers and Bucky but Fantastic Four’s villain Dr Doom has also visited this universe by shrinking himself so as to fake his death.

The microverse.

The Microverse is also home to Micronauts, tiny miniature action figures that Marvel made comic books on in the ‘70s. However, toy manufacturer Hasbro later bought the rights to the characters and also the word ‘Microverse’, which is why this universe is called the Quantum Realm in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The toy company now hopes to make its own Micronauts movie in association with Paramount Pictures.

There are only two ways to visit this universe. The first, of course, is if you shrunk yourself smaller than atoms, like Hope’s mom and Scott did; or you can access it through magic, literally. In 2016’s Doctor Strange, the Ancient One sends her new disciple’s Astral self flying into different universes with the help of her Sling Ring as she tutors him about life beyond the one we know. If you watched the stunning segment closely, you would have noticed how much one of the universes looks like the Quantum Realm visited by Scott.

So what good is it to anyone? A mighty lot if you want to see your fallen heroes from Avengers: Infinity War alive again. New theories, including Marvel honcho Kevin Fiege himself, have suggested that the Quantum Realm will be crucial in the upcoming Avengers 4. As Pym told Scott in the first movie, the concept of time and space doesn’t work the same in the Quantum Realm. This could mean that either it does not move at all or can help you access a different time and space. This is just what our surviving heroes, including Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Captain America and others need to bring back Spider-Man, Black Panther and others, or turn back the clock to visit the past and change the course of future.

This is more or less corroborated by the set photos from Avengers 4 that surfaced last year. A much older, greying Tony was seen shooting at a replica set from the first Avengers movie. Joining him was Captain America in his original costume, a Hulk that was capable of conversation and Ant-Man. Even Thor had his old, long hair and Loki was seen bound and gagged after his failed siege of New York.

All our heroes, Tony, Captain and Ant-Man, were seen with a device strapped to their hands. It looks like this will be what keeps them tethered together in this new, different universe. Together, they will look to find a way to Thanos and stop him in his way to forging an Infinity Gauntlet and snapping his fingers.

Theories also suggest that the microverse is also where Captain Marvel lives. The page for help, sent to her at the end of Infinity War by Nick Fury would mean that is his only way to connect her and that maybe he has met her on another mission. Because Thanos wiped off half the life of this universe, it leaves the others universes safe and our only hope to save our world.

So would we see more of Quantum Realm in the movies to come? These theories do tell us so. However, what they don’t tell us is ‘Why is Gamora?’

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