Hank Pym has a new vehicle that allows him to navigate the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man & the Wasp. This has been glimpsed in the tripper parts of the movie’s trailers, and we have some exclusive details.

The idea of the Quantum Realm was introduced in 2015’s Ant-Man. It was described as “a reality where all concepts of time and space become irrelevant as you shrink for all eternity,” and Hank Pym believed anything that entered the Quantum Realm was destroyed. He learned otherwise when Scott Lang successfully escaped the Quantum Realm, and since then Hank’s spent years working on a way to investigate this realm. He believes his wife Janet, who was stranded in the Quantum Realm decades ago, may still be alive. As a result, and as the trailers have made clear, Pym has successfully created a pretty remarkable vehicle.

Speaking to Screen Rant on the set of Ant-Man & the Wasp, director Peyton Reed and production designer Shepherd Frankel revealed just how they designed Hank Pym’s Quantum Realm vehicle:

Frankel’s description offers some fascinating hints as to just what the Quantum Realm may actually be like. The two most important elements, according to Frankel, are thrusting and visibility. This is an exploration vessel, after all, and Pym will want to see as much of the Quantum Realm as he can. The focus on the landing mechanism is an interesting touch, backing up trailer shots teasing the team embarking from the craft.

“Actually, we got the inspiration from like, a helicopter. So we know that the most important part about that is the thrusting and the visibility. So not unlike the Sikorski helicopter, or the lightweight kinda ones that are really about the bubble. So we kinda looked into the vehicles that go submerged under water, because it’s all about visibility. And in this particular case, it needs a thruster. That is visible and the landing mechanism. But we built this from just our research. And so that’s kind of where we got ours from. That’s how we evolved ours.”

While the design was functional, director Peyton Reed stressed that it had to be cool. “If I’m a kid,” he explained, “I want to play with this thing.” It’s an amusing approach, and no doubt Marvel will have no objection to it - superhero movies tend to make their money through merchandise.

The question, of course, is just what will Hank Pym find in the Quantum Realm? We know he’ll succeed in finding his missing wife, the original Wasp, but the experience of spending a decade trapped in the Quantum Realm will surely have left her psychologically scarred. Meanwhile, other forces seem to be interested in the Quantum Realm; according to the trailers, no sooner does Hank open up the Quantum Realm, than the mysterious Ghost steals his tech. That means this pod could easily wind up in the wrong hands.

Curiously enough, the Quantum Realm is expected to play a major part in next year’s Captain Marvel as well. If that is the case, a popular theory is that this mysterious plane of reality could turn out to hold the secret of time-travel. Who knows what secrets Ant-Man & the Wasp may hold in that regard.

Next: Ant-Man & The Wasp: Every Update You Need To Know

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