When Ant-Man & The Wasp Takes Place In The MCU Timeline

Here’s when Ant-Man & The Wasp takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s timeline. Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man & The Wasp is the 20th MCU film and it’s the first of two prequels, along with Captain Marvel, released in between 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Ant-Man & The Wasp is also a sequel to 2015’s Ant-Man and to 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, which featured Ant-Man as a guest star.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) paid dearly for joining Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in Germany and fighting for Team Cap in defiance of the Sokovia Accords. After he and the rest of Team Cap were defeated and captured by Team Iron Man, Scott was incarcerated in The Raft before he was sprung by Rogers. However, upon returning to San Francisco, Lang turned himself into the FBI and he was placed under house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords. This deal allowed Scott’s young daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) visitation rights but it estranged him from Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his girlfriend Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who were forced to go on the run due to the Sokovia Accords. But while they were on the lam, Hank and Hope perfected their Quantum Tunnel, which would allow them to enter the Quantum Realm to rescue Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who has been missing since 1987

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Although the prologue showing Janet Van Dyne’s disappearance is set in 1987, Ant-Man & The Wasp takes place in the last few days of Scott’s two-year house arrest prison term. Unless specified as a prequel, the MCU movies mostly take place in the same year as they are released theatrically so the two years of real-time between Captain America: Civil War and Ant-Man & The Wasp elapsed in the MCU as well. By the end of Ant-Man & The Wasp, Scott’s prison term has been fully served and it’s clear that the film’s main story takes place before the events of Avengers: Infinity War but exactly how long isn’t specified.

There’s also a mid-credits scene that shows Hank and Janet resuming their married lives in a new house by the beach while Scott and Hope grow closer and Cassie joins them as they watched a drive-in movie on a laptop while ant-sized. Obviously, all of that also happens before Infinity War, although it’s not clear how long before. But since the arrival of the Black Order on Earth led to an alien attack on New York City and the disappearance of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), which was international news, it seems Ant-Man & The Wasp‘s mid-credits scene precedes that as well.

At the end of Ant-Man & The Wasp, Scott and the Pyms rescued Janet from the Quantum Realm and defeated the Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who suffers from molecular instability and needs energy from the Quantum Realm in order to live. This leads into Ant-Man & The Wasp‘s post-credits scene, set on a San Francisco rooftop where Scott planned to use a miniature Quantum Tunnel in the back of a van to enter the Quantum Realm to retrieve particles that could help Ghost.

But while Scott was in the Quantum Realm, Thanos completed the Infinity Gauntlet in Wakanda and snapped his fingers, reducing half of all life in the universe into dust. This included Hank, Janet, and Hope, so Ant-Man & The Wasp‘s post-credits scene happened simultaneously as the Battle of Wakanda over 9,000 miles away. Scott was unaware of what happened and left stranded in the Quantum Realm until he emerged by accident (thanks to a helpful rat) five years later in 2023 at the start of Avengers: Endgame.

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