Relationship Spotlight Scott & Cassie Lang (Ant-Man and the Wasp)

*Scott-Cassie-related spoilers, including for Quantumania.*

After Quantumania came out, I did a long-overdue write-up about Cassie Lang, and even though I very naturally talked quite a bit about Scott there, I wanted to write a dedicated post about their relationship as well. Family stuff—of both the biological and found variety—looms large in the MCU, and Scott and Cassie’s father/daughter relationship is crucial to the Ant-Man and the Wasp franchise.

Honestly, without Cassie, I’m not sure if Scott ever would’ve become Ant-Man. Or at least, if Hank was still determined to give him the suit and enlist his help, he would’ve had a trickier time getting Scott involved. After his release from prison, Scott is desperate to be with his daughter, but Maggie isn’t willing to entertain visitation, let alone joint custody, until he can prove he’s gotten his act together. And a lot of that means money: child support, an apartment, a job, etc.

(Side note: I’m not sure if it’s ever stated how long Scott was in prison or how much contact he had with Cassie while he was inside, whether he was able to call her or if Maggie brought her for visits.)

Even though Scott has vowed not to get into any more trouble, because he knows how much time he’s already missed with Cassie, it’s tough for him to get steady employment as a formerly incarcerated person. Every setback just makes him think of how much longer it’ll be before he’s able to see her. So, when Luis proposes a big one-time score—unbeknownst to him, one deliberated orchestrated and dangled by Hank in order to reel Scott in—Scott agrees. It’s over the course of this burglary that he discovers the Ant-Man suit, is arrested, and, with a nudge from Hank to use the suit, breaks back out. Now he’s been swept up into something bigger than he's ever experienced, and Hank has him on the hook.

I mentioned in my Cassie post that her relationship with her dad is almost marked more by the time they’re separated than the time that they’re together, but despite all the various forces that conspire to keep them apart, I really love it when we do see their relationship in action. Scott is Cassie’s hero and she doesn’t care that he was in prison. His goofiness tickles her, and he gets that she’d rather have or do something interesting than something cool or pretty, like the “ugly” stuffed animal he gives her for her birthday. When he’s on house arrest in Ant-Man and the Wasp, I love that he constructs elaborate pretend Ant-Man missions for them to do together at his place, that he spends hours taking an online course in close-up magic, just so he can give her fun things to do when she stays with him.

There’s a great moment in Ant-Man and the Wasp where Scott is wrestling with the task before him and Cassie suggests that he needs a partner. Assuming she means Hope, he says, “Well, she’s made it clear that’s about the last thing she wants.” But Cassie shyly admits that she was talking about herself. Realizing that his reaction hurt her feelings, Scott reassures her while letting her down gently, saying, “Aww, peanut. You would be awesome. And if I let you, I would be a terrible dad.” The whole scene is so sweet and lovely.

By the time Quantumania rolls around, a lot has changed. Scott and Cassie were separated again, this time for five years when he was stuck in the Quantum Realm during the Blip. It doesn’t feel like that much time for him, because timey-wimey, but he’s suddenly confronted with the fact that his daughter is now a teenager. In Quantumania, it’s obvious that both still love each other hugely, but they don’t have the same easy closeness that they did when Cassie was a kid. Cassie is more independent now, and Scott worries about some of what she gets up to, like getting arrested after she shrinks a cop car during a peaceful protest. While Cassie thinks she’s doing what her dad does—helping people by doing what’s right, not by following the rules—Scott only sees a daughter who’s getting in trouble and fears he’s not doing enough as a parent.

Things come to a head when the whole Ant-Man/Wasp crew is sucked into the Quantum Realm. Once they realize the state of affairs there, Cassie thinks the time has finally come: she can fight by Scott’s side and be his partner. But allowing his daughter to be put in even more danger is the last thing on Scott’s mind. He’s in full protective-dad mode, basically wanting Cassie to stay quiet and do exactly as he says until he’s able to get them out. But that’s not going to fly this time. Cassie’s a teenager, she has her own suit, she’s trained with it, and she learned a lot about the Quantum Realm during the Blip. She has skills she can contribute and wants to stand beside her dad, not hide behind him. Over the course of the film, she has to learn to listen better and defer to his experience, but he also has to learn to treat her like a capable young person and not a little girl.

Character Highlight: Cassie Lang (Ant-Man and the Wasp)

*Quantumania spoilers.*

Apparently I didn’t know what day it was yesterday, so have this week’s Marvelous Wednesday post a day late. While this post is obviously coming on the heels of Quantumania, which I reviewed last week, I want to talk about Cassie’s whole tenure in the MCU to date. So far, she’s been in four movies played by three different actresses, so there’s a decent amount of ground to cover.

When we first meet Cassie, she’s six years old. She lives with her mom and stepdad, and she hasn’t been able to see her dad since he got out of prison. We’re introduced to her as a mostly happy kid who misses her dad. When Scott shows up uninvited to her birthday party, Cassie is thrilled and seemingly oblivious to the custody arguments that have been keeping him away. She adores the “ugly” stuffed animal Scott gives her, and even before Scott becomes Ant-Man, it's clear that her dad is her hero.

Over the years, Cassie experiences a lot, in terms of both regular-life stuff and superhero stuff. She’s menaced by Yellow Jacket, who engages in an epic size-shifting fight with her dad in her bedroom. Scott finally gets joint custody, but for two years, her stays with her dad are somewhat contained, because Scott is under house arrest after the events of Civil War. She escapes the Snap, but although Scott doesn’t get Blipped, he winds up trapped in the Quantum Realm for five years, so Cassie is again without her dad. By the time he gets back to her, she’s a teenager.

During the Blip, Cassie gets interested in Hank’s notes and starts researching the Quantum Realm. After the events of Endgame, when everyone is brought back from the Blip, Hank helps her build a device to map the Quantum Realm, but when Kang picks up her signal, he sucks Cassie and the Ant-Man crew into the micro-universe.

So, other than wanting to be with her dad more than she’s often able to, what are the throughlines for Cassie’s character? She has a strong sense of justice, which doesn’t necessarily equate to what’s lawful. Maybe because Scott’s initial imprisonment is over a Robin Hood-style burglary and he’s later punished in the course of performing his superhero duties, Cassie’s distrustful of police—while she likes her stepdad Paxton, who’s a cop, she’s not shy about telling him she hopes he doesn’t catch Scott in Ant-Man. As a teenager, she’s arrested at a peaceful protest when she shrinks a police car to stop officers from clearing a homeless encampment. This might be Cassie’s way of feeling close to her dad during the times they couldn’t be together, or she may have simply adopted his brand of flexible morals led by inner values.

In the Quantum Realm, this translates to Cassie stepping up to be a hero herself. Despite Scott’s desire to prioritize her safety, which means getting her out of the Quantum Realm as soon as possible, Cassie sees how the people there have been oppressed and terrorized by Kang, and her first instinct is to help. She has a suit that Hank made for her, and while her moves are clumsier than Scott’s or Hope’s, she insists on throwing herself into the fray and doing what she can. Even when she’s scared, she finds a way to push through, guided by that strong urge to do what’s just.

It's been heavily speculated that Marvel is setting up a Young Avengers project down the road. If that happens and Cassie’s a part of it, it could be fun to see her interact with other young heroes. Having a parent who’s a superhero could give her some common ground with the Maximoff twins, and more than a few young heroes could relate to diving into a dangerous situation that they’re not super equipped for.