Ant-Man movies ranked
Ant-Man is one of the fan favorites of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Scott Lang/Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd, was introduced in the MCU in Ant-Man in 2015, and he was an instant hit with fans. The first Ant-Man grossed more than $500 million in the box office, which paved the way for the two Ant-Man sequels.
We’ve also seen Ant-Man appear in several other MCU movies and play very important roles in those movies, including Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.
Now that we have a few Ant-Man movies to compare, we decided to rank the Ant-Man movies from worst to best.
We also shared the Ant-Man movies in order:
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
It’s unclear what the future of the MCU looks like for Ant-Man. We know Paul Rudd isn’t going anywhere (no spoilers for Quantumania, of course!), but it doesn’t look like Ant-Man 4 is going to happen anytime soon, if it happens at all. The third movie unfortunately isn’t quite generating the buzz that the first two movies were able to generate, and this is a numbers game after all.
Let’s just jump in and talk about Quantumania now! It’s the third movie on the list, which means it’s the worst Ant-Man movie so far.
3. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania
- Release Year: 2023
- Director: Peyton Reed
- Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, David Dastmalchian, Katy O’Brian, William Jackson Harper, Bill Murray, Michelle Pfeiffer, Corey Stoll, and Michael Douglas
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third Ant-Man movie we’ve seen so far. It’s also the most recent Marvel movie release. It premiered in theaters in February 2023, and it’s not getting the best reviews so far. Of the three Ant-Man movies, critics are definitely more down on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania than the other movies.
Overall, audiences seem to be enjoying the film, though. I didn’t think the movie was bad or anything. It’s definitely a solid story with good performances, but it’s just not quite as good as the other movies.
In the film, the Pyms (Hank, Janet, and Hope) and the Langs (Scott and his daughter, Cassie) are sucked into the Quantum Realm. There, they find several major obstacles preventing them from exiting the Quantum Realm, including villains past and the new villain of the MCU, Kang, played by Jonathan Majors.
The MCU is set up for Kang to become the next big villain in the MCU. He appears in Loki season 2 and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. He was also just arrested in New York City and charged with assault and harassment. It’s unclear at this point how the situation is going to play out and it’s unfair to speculate about any aspects of the case or Majors’ role in the MCU.
Okay, enough about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Let’s talk about the second-best Ant-Man movie we’ve seen so far!
2. Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Release Year: 2018
- Director: Peyton Reed
- Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas
After the first Ant-Man and the events of Captain America: Civil War, we knew where this story was going to go. There’s so much pain for the Pym family after the disappearance of Janet, Hope’s mom and Hank’s wife, in the quantum realm many years ago. In the film, the Pym fam and Scott team up to save Janet’s life and bring her out of the quantum realm via a tunnel that they built. The only problem there is a new villain, Ghost, trying to stop them and steal their tech.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is a great MCU movie. The first Ant-Man is just a touch better, but the stakes are definitely higher and there are more implications about what could go wrong if they are unsuccessful in their mission.
There are also a few big things that happen in Ant-Man and the Wasp that absolutely pave the way for heroes in the future to stop Thanos with the quantum realm bit.
As I said, Ant-Man is just a little bit better and feels a little bit more fun, in my opinion, than Ant-Man and the Wasp. Let’s talk now about the best Ant-Man movie we’ve seen so far!
1. Ant-Man
- Release Year: 2015
- Director: Peyton Reed
- Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas
Ant-Man is one of my favorite Marvel movies! It’s not the most exciting premise or the highest stakes we’ve seen in the MCU, but it’s an excellent heist movie. We haven’t seen many of them in the MCU, and it was a refreshing change of pace.
In the film, Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas, enlists the help of thief Scott Lang to stop Darren Cross, played by Corey Stoll. Cross has tech that allows him to become Yellowjacket, which could change the course of history if Cross is left unchecked. Scott becomes Ant-Man and uses the powers made possible by Pym to stop Cross.
There’s also something that’s just really special about this particular cast. It features a lot of major players for future movies and storylines, but seeing them all together at one time was just a good time.
Overall, Ant-Man was a big hit with critics and fans. It’s not quite as good as some of the bigger MCU movies we’ve seen, especially compared to Spider-Man or Avengers movies, but it’s still really good. It’s definitely better than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. We could definitely have a pretty good debate about whether it’s better than Ant-Man and the Wasp, though! I’m going with the original movie, though.