A little release date shuffle this Friday afternoon as Marvel Studios have swapped the release dates of two of their upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Captain Marvel 2, aka The Marvels, was previously set to hit theaters on February 17, 2023, but its release has been pushed back to July 28, 2023. That date happened to be occupied by Ant-Man 3, aka Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, so the Ant-Man sequel has jumped forward to fill Captain Marvel’s old date and will now hit theaters on February 17, 2023.
We don’t know all that much about either MCU film at this time, but both boast some pretty impressive casts. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania once again features Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne, Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet van Dyne. They’ll be joined by Kathryn Newton as Cassie Lang and Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conquerer, a “time-travelling, multiversal adversary” who is shaping up to be the next big bad in the MCU. The Ant-Man movies have typically dealt with the lower-stakes side of the MCU, but the inclusion of Kang hints that Ant-Man 3 might just be something more. Jonathan Majors first appeared in the Loki series on Disney+ as He Who Remains, the creator of the Time Variance Authority. The film was once again directed by Peyton Reed from a script by Jeff Loveness.
The Marvels will star Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, with Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan filling out the superhero team. Nia DaCosta took over directing duties for the Captain Marvel sequel from a screenplay by Megan McDonnell. As with Jonathan Majors on Ant-Man 3, both Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani made their debuts on the small screen, with Parris first appearing as Rambeau in WandaVision and Vellani set to debut as Khan in Ms. Marvel, which will debut on Disney+ on June 8, 2022.