The Ant-Man movies have been a big (and often bad) influence on the MCU

polygon.com:

Iron Man and Black Widow are dead. Thor is busy parenting. New versions of Black Panther and Captain America are probably still attending Avengers orientation. So 2023 seems like a natural moment for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to promote Scott Lang from ex-con comic-relief third-stringer superhero to Avengers frontman. But the press over Scott’s big jump in narrative responsibility in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania overlooks the truth: The Ant-Man movies have been central to the MCU operation all along.

While the first and second Ant-Man movies functioned as light breathers following mega-team-up Avengers movies, the three-quel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got a prime position as the kickoff movie for the MCU’s “Phase 5,” introducing primary multiverse antagonist Kang (Jonathan Majors) to the big screen after a brief appearance in the Loki TV show. It seemed like a new direction for Ant-Man — especially with director Peyton Reed talking up his excitement over repositioning the series from post-Avengers palate-cleanser to big-mythology main course.

But there’s more to Ant-Man than even Reed is giving him credit for, and it goes back to his introduction in 2015’s Ant-Man. So many heroes have been inducted into the MCU via origin-story features and TV shows at this point that it’s easy to forget how early in the franchise that movie arrived. At the time of its release, almost all the Marvel-produced movies had focused on the original Avengers from The Avengers’ 2012 lineup, with several entries apiece for mini franchises centered on Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. (There was also an Incredible Hulk movie in there, memory-holed via recasting.) Ant-Man was the first origin story outside of that circle.

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