Although Paul Rudd’s Scot Lang, Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne, Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne all appeared in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, it hasn’t been since the year prior that we’ve specifically delved into Ant-Man’s corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Ant-Man and the Wasp. Fortunately for fans of this particular film series, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is slated for a summer 2023 release, and it turns out one of the MCU’s longtime MCU players will be involved. Samuel L. Jackson has revealed he’s reprising Nick Fury in the threequel.
The actor revealed this while speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, which is also where he gave his take on where Star Wars’ Mace Windu and Jurassic Park’s Ray Arnold are now. During their conversation, Samuel L. Jackson mentioned the nine-picture deal he signed with Marvel back in 2009, noting how though it used to take a while to make a movie, but nowadays “people make two or three of them at a time” in the MCU, which he described as “crazy.” He then said this:
When I was in London just now, it was like Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel 2 was happening, and we were getting ready to do Secret Invasion. So it’s like three Marvel movies on one lot. I was kind of running around from place to place.
We’ve known that Samuel L. Jackson is starring in Secret Invasion since the Disney+ series was officially announced back in December 2020, and the actor confirmed his involvement in The Marvels, i.e. the Captain Marvel follow-up movie, last August. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, on the other hand, is a surprise, so it’ll be interesting to see how Nick Fury gets drawn into Ant-Man’s world. Quantumania will mark Fury’s 13th film appearance, stretching all the way back to the beginning of the MCU when he cameoed at the end of Iron Man (which didn’t take long to shoot).
The last time we saw Nick Fury was in Spider-Man: Far From Home’s post-credits scene. It turned out the Fury we’d been following along with during the main story was the shapeshifting Skrull known as Talos, reprised by Ben Mendelsohn, while the real Fury was out in space with other Skrulls. Talos will be back in action alongside Fury in Secret Invasion, which will delve into a sect of Skrulls infiltrating Earth’s population. It’s unclear at the point was The Marvels has in store for Fury, although the end of Disney+’s WandaVision saw Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau meeting a Skrull who told her a friend of her mother’s wanted to meet, and Fury fits that label. Either way, once those two projects have come and gone, then it’ll come time for Fury to stop by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, whether it’s through a supporting role or a cameo.
Along with Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer all reprising their respective roles, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will also feature Kathryn Newton taking over the role of Cassie Lang, as well as Jonathan Majors, who appeared in the Loki Season 1 finale as a Kang the Conqueror variant called He Who Remains, being present as the main version of Kang. Bill Murray has also said that he’ll appear in Ant-Man 3 as a “bad guy,” and it’s rumored that Corey Stoll might return as Darren Cross, albeit looking much different than last time. Just like with the last two Ant-Man movies, Peyton Reed is sitting in the director’s chair, and Rick and Morty alum Jeff Loveness wrote the script.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on July 28, 2023, just one of many upcoming Marvel movies to look forward to in the coming years. If you want to re-watch the previous Ant-Man movies, they’re available to stream with a Disney+ subscription alongside nearly every other MCU entry.
