6 details to remember before watching 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

It's been a few years since Marvel fans last took a trip to the Quantum Realm, so let's take a quick refresher as to what it is and why it's so important to the MCU.

The first "Ant-Man" film established that there's a miniature version of reality that exists underneath our own in the molecules that make up existence as we know it.

Time moves differently in the Quantum Realm because of its minuscule size, which is why the Avengers were able to manipulate it and travel backward through the timeline in "Avengers: Endgame."

So, although Kang is trapped down there when "Quantumania" picks up, he already has the upper hand as time is on his side.

Hang on, why is Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) a young woman now?

Cassie was first played by Abby Ryder Fortson in the first two "Ant-Man" movies, before the events of "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," and there's a five-year time gap between those two films.

Cassie survived the snap and grew up in a world that was severely affected by Thanos (Josh Brolin) wiping out half of all life in the universe.

So it'll be interesting to see how that changed her as a person. She's clearly not afraid to break the law, like her dad, because some of the promotional footage sees her being released from a cell.

Yes, Cassie also looks a little different from her brief appearance in "Endgame." That's because "Detective Pikachu" and "Freaky" star Kathryn Newton has replaced Emma Fuhrmann as Scott's daughter.

It's already been a few years since the 2019 "Avengers" movie, but the recasting decision probably isn't to age Cassie up further.

Although Marvel Studios hasn't confirmed the specific reason behind adding Newton to the film, it's likely that they wanted an actor with a little more star power considering Cassie's bigger role in the sequel.

After all, Cassie's the driving force behind the film, as the trailers confirm that she's the one who makes the device that alerts Kang to their existence while he's down in the Quantum Realm.

Way back in 2015's "Ant-Man," Marvel established that Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) got lost in the Quantum Realm when she defused a nuclear missile by going subatomic to shrink beneath its metal plating.

Although she succeeded in stopping the missile, she was separated from Hank (Michael Douglas) for decades until she managed to get a signal out to Hope and Scott in 2019's "Ant-Man and the Wasp."

Janet didn't reveal much about her time down in the Quantum Realm, but the first trailers hint that she already knows who Kang is, so it's entirely possible that they've already spent years getting to know each other.

Whether that's romantic, as friends, or as enemies, remains to be seen.

Anyone who's watched the "Loki" series on Disney+ will remember that Jonathan Majors has already appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as an alternate version of Kang the Conqueror, called "He Who Remains."

The mysterious character is the real puppet master behind the Time Variance Authority, and has been carefully curating the timeline as a way of protecting the main 616 universe from an infinite number of Kangs from throughout the multiverse.

It's important to remember that the version of Kang causing havoc for Scott Lang and the gang is probably not the same one seen in "Loki." And even if he is, he'll be a much younger version of the villain.

It's also not clear how the death of He Who Remains will affect this version of Kang, and whether we'll see the multiverse break out into war during "Quantumania."

The trailers have shown off thousands of alternate duplicate Ant-Men scrambling over one another, so things are definitely going to get trippy.

Okay, bear with us on this one, but Kang the Conqueror is a time traveler and is possibly related to the Fantastic Four, namely Reed Richards.

Kang's origins in the comics have always been a little muddy due to the fact that he's lived across a number of millennia, and has gone by different names over the years.

But one of the key parts of his history is that his real name is Nathaniel Richards, and he's a descendant of Reed's own father, who was also a time traveler. However, he was born in a different universe, making him Mr. Fantastic's half-brother.

Although Marvel Studios has yet to confirm whether Kang will be connected to the Fantastic Four in the MCU, it would be a missed opportunity since the team's own movie is currently in development.

"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" is in theaters Friday.