Every Ant-Man Movie Ranked (From Worst to Best)
Marvel Comics has introduced thousands of characters during its long history, and ever since the Marvel Cinematic Universe has earned worldwide popularity, it became easier for less-known characters from comic books to get a spotlight on the big screen. Ant-Man is one of those characters. Scott Lang, the second character who donned the Ant-Man mantle in the Marvel Universe, debuted in the MCU in the 2015’s Ant-Man movie, starring Paul Rudd in the title role.
Michael Douglas starred as Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, and Evangeline Lilly starred as Hope van Dyne, who eventually becomes the second Wasp in the 2018 sequel. Those three actors played the main roles in the Ant-Man trilogy and appeared in some other MCU projects. Now, we will rank all three Ant-Man movies from the worst to the best. FYI, we’re excluding other MCU movies in which Ant-Man appeared (Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame).
3. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a sequel to 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and the follow-up to Avengers: Endgame. The movie depicts how Scott Lang is living a good life after Thanos’ defeat. Fascinated by the Quantum Realm, Scott’s daughter Cassie created the Quantum Satellite, which accidentally trapped her, her father, Hank Pym, Janet van Dyne, and Hope van Dyne in the Quantum Realm, where a new threat waited.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania had the potential to be the best Ant-Man movie and one of the best movies of the Multiverse Saga so far. Unfortunately, as much as Peyton Reed did a good job with the first two movies, it looks like he chewed more than he could swallow with this one.
Still, despite the fact that it was the most disappointing Ant-Man installment, maybe we just expected too much from the movie, which introduced a new big villain. A great villain, to be clear, but it looks like this movie was kind of made to introduce a new villain more than it was made to be another chapter in Scott Lang’s MCU story.
Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror looked great, and post-credit scenes did a great job setting up the stage for what’s to come in the MCU. Performances of the cast were on a high level, especially Michelle Pfeiffer, who finally got a chance to shine as Janet van Dyne. But when we look at it as a whole, Quantumania still feels like just another step towards the next big thing that Marvel Studios planned for us (read: Avengers: The Kang Dynasty). The movie provides decent entertainment while you’re watching it, but when the movie finishes, you realize that you’ll need to wait for the next movie to see how the story will continue.
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Ant-Man and the Wasp is a sequel to the original Ant-Man movie and the follow-up to Captain America: Civil War. After fighting on Steve Rogers’ side against Iron Man and his allies, Scott Lang took a plea deal that put him on house arrest. Scott is using the house arrest to spend more time with his daughter while also running the X-Con Security Consultants company he founded with his friend Luis. But, keeping a low profile will prove harder than expected when Hope van Dyne contacts him again, believing that Scott can help her and her father Hank find Janet van Dyne, who was trapped in the Quantum Realm for the last 30 years.
Ant-Man movies are generally made on a much lower scale than some other MCU movies. We’d say that the problem with this movie was that it was released between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, two gigantic movies that make Ant-Man and the Wasp look like an ant compared to them. Ant-Man and the Wasp movie feels like an innocent walk in the park on a sunny day. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is good. The movie’s humor, loveable characters, and actors’ performances are what make this movie a decent afternoon entertainment.
The best thing about this movie is the mid-credit scene which ended on a huge cliffhanger and, along with Avengers: Infinity War’s ending, made the fans even more excited for the then-still-untitled Avengers movie, which later received its official title — Avengers: Endgame. In the end, the biggest problem with this movie is that when an MCU fan thinks, “Which of these 30+ movies should I rewatch?” the odds that the final pick will be Ant-Man and the Wasp are pretty low.
1. Ant-Man (2015)
The original Ant-Man movie introduced Paul Rudd’s titular hero to the MCU and the big screen in general. The movie was released after Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it followed an ex-con Scott Lang who is recruited by Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, to use the suit he created to infiltrate the building of Pym Technologies and pull off a heist to get Pym’s technology out of the hands of evil Darren Cross.
While this may not be among your favorite MCU movies, this movie was something fresh for the MCU at the time of its release, not only because of the fact that it introduced a new hero that we haven’t seen on the big screen before but also because we have never really watched a heist superhero movie before this one. The movie was praised for insisting on smaller stakes than other MCU movies.
The cast’s performances were also praised, and Paul Rudd established himself as the MCU’s Ant-Man in the best way possible. To be honest, the worst thing about this movie was Evangeline Lilly’s wig. You can take us seriously or not on this one, but we said it.
It’s pretty hard to believe that Ant-Man will get another solo movie. Not only because the trilogy is now completed but also because Quantumania was the lowest-grossing MCU sequel, which doesn’t sound promising even if Marvel Studios had the potential plans for the fourth installment.
On the other hand, we truly believe there will be more of Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man because Quantumania definitely didn’t seem like the closing chapter for the character. When we look at it, Ant-Man is the only Avenger who has fought Kang the Conqueror so far, so that gives a reason to believe he’ll have an important role in the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
