Ever since Avengers: Endgame, looking back at the prior MCU movies will never be the same again. Not only because of the clever way the summer blockbuster culminated the 23-movie franchise, but also because how just about every past movie weaves into the Infinity Saga upon re-watching. Take 2015’s Ant-Man. There’s a moment of foreshadowing during the third act. See if you can spot it in the scene below:
Amidst an action-packed scene that has Ant-Man and his squad of insects against Corey Stoll’s Yellowjacket on a helicopter, the villain has Scott Lang in his cross hairs. Darren Cross says “Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?” Get it? It’s funny because in Avengers: Endgame, the Avengers literally save the world by pulling off a time heist, therefore changing the future.
One Reddit user noticed this tidbit, and while the odds of this being intentional feels low, it does allow the scene to fit nicely when Marvel fans go back and marathon the previous movies following Avengers: Endgame. Perhaps this is where Ant-Man gets his idea to pull off a time heist just to spite Yellowjacket’s lines or where writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely stemmed their idea from?
Before Avengers: Endgame hit theaters, many fans had foreseen the Avengers using Ant-Man’s technology to go back in time to change the Snap. However, the idea of a time heist that had multiple teams of Avengers going to different time periods to nab the Infinity Stones and reverse the mass genocide set in motion by Thanos was a nice surprise. Maybe fans were too busy theorizing about Ant-Man crawling into Thanos’ butt and becoming giant to explode him?
Ant-Man may not be an original Avenger, but his storyline was a vital element to Avengers: Endgame that wouldn’t have been possible without him. However, the Ant-Man films have been among the lowest grossing in the MCU thus far. Now, that being said, 2015’s Ant-Man still made over half a billion worldwide. It is interesting that Marvel Studios decided to pick the mythos from Ant-Man to help culminate the Infinity Saga!
As many fans talked about in the comments of the Reddit thread, Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man is a vastly underrated installment in the MCU. Maybe the fact that he is a vital element in the highest grossing movie of all time will give the Paul Rudd-led solo films more exposure.
As Marvel Studios moves forward with Phase Four, there are tons of exciting titles on the way, including Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder. Marvel chief Kevin Feige also confirmed there will be more from Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel and so forth, but more Ant-Man was not mentioned. Maybe in Phase Five?
Until then, you can check out Avengers: Endgame now available on digital and coming to Blu-ray on August 13.
