Cassie Lang is ready for the Young Avengers says Ant-Man 3 director
Young Avengers... assemble?
Watch: Ant-Man stars talk Young Avengers
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania director Peyton Reed thinks Ant-Man's daughter Cassie Lang could have a big part to play in the Young Avengers, should the Marvel Cinematic Universe move in that direction.
Quantumania — in cinemas and IMAX now — introduces us for the first time to Lang’s nascent superhero persona, with Kathryn Newton making her MCU debut in the role.
And Reed, the director on all three Ant-Man movies, is adamant that Cassie "absolutely" should be a key part of the Young Avengers.
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“I don't know what the future is for the Young Avengers but Cassie Lang has got to be there," Reed tells Yahoo UK.
"I think she inherits a lot of her father's skill and I think a lot of his moral compass. She's definitely an idealist. And she's finding her voice as a young woman and as a hero. But I think she has a great future ahead of her. I think she's a leader.”
There’s no official Young Avengers film greenlit yet for the MCU but there’s been plenty of talk from those in the know about setting up the next generation of heroes, and we’ve already met some of the comic-book Young Avengers on the screen.
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From Kate Bishop in Hawkeye and America Chavez in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to Eli Bradley in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Kid Loki in Loki, and Scarlet Witch’s twin sons Billy and Tommy aka Wiccan and Speed in WandaVision, these are all Young Avengers plucked straight from the pages of the comics.
Like Marvel fans everywhere, Evangeline Lilly, who plays Hope van Dyne aka the Wasp in the Ant-Man films, says she would “die” to see Newton in a Young Avengers movie: “I’d be so there in a heartbeat, it would be so fun”.
Newton isn’t sure that Cassie has quite learned to kick butt yet, and has a few things to learn before taking on such a big responsibility within the Young Avengers.
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“I don't think she knows how to kick butt at all in this movie,” says the actor. “I think she's a total mess. She wants to be a hero, but she has no idea what she's doing… Cassie Lang just wants to make her dad proud. But she's so impatient and wants to be a hero right now. And I think she feels the guilt of her actions a lot.”
Newton continues, “She has heroic moments in this film, but I don't think she's got it figured out. You know, I trained for five months but it was not to look cool. It was to learn how to fall. It was to learn how to take punches, and to have stamina, but I don't know that she really has got it figured out yet.”
Perhaps not, but Peyton Reed is certain Cassie has got what it takes to step up and really come into her own as a superhero and Young Avengers member.
“We've set up the fact that she sort of has a little bit of Ant-Man, a little bit of the Wasp,” says Reed. "But she also has something that maybe her dad doesn't have, which is this scientific… aptitude that feels more in line with Hank [Pym] and Janet [van Dyne].
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"She's spent a lot of that five years when [her dad] was gone, trying to figure out how to rescue him. And she's been through Hank Pym’s journals and studied quantum mechanics. So I think there's a wide range of things and places that could lead her.”
The future looks bright for Cassie Lang – a Young Avengers leader in the making?
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in cinemas now. Watch a trailer below.