It’s been a minute since we last saw Ant-Man—a.k.a. Scott Lang, a.k.a. The Avenger Who Could Have Killed Thanos By Climbing Up His Butthole and Exploding Him From the Inside. But it’s been even longer since we saw the real star of the debut trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: the old guy from the “Focus Group” sketch in the first season of Netflix’s I Think You Should Leave.
Yes, in a trailer ostensibly about the return of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), there are more important matters at hand. Since the events of Avengers: Endgame, Lang (Paul Rudd) has enjoyed a higher level of fame than ever before. He’s an Avenger! He helped save the world! Even if he didn’t crawl up Thanos’ butthole to explode him from the inside, as he should have!
It’s a welcome change for the self-described “ex-con,” who we first met in Ant-Man when he was fresh out of jail. He’s traded his life of absentee fatherdom and white-collar crime (stealing money from the rich—a modern-day Robin Hood!) for red carpets and crime-fighting, as one of Earth’s mightiest heroes. He’s now back with his dream girl, Hope (Evangeline Lilly)—a.k.a. The Wasp. His old boss at the Baskin Robbins he worked at when he got out of jail (a Gregg Turkington cameo, for my On Cinema at the Cinema-heads) has even named him Employee of the Century.
All of this is nice, and Lang seems really happy. But as he exits a donut shop with a big smile on his face, that ego boost comes crashing down: “Thank you, Spider-Man!” an old man cries out after him. Lang pauses, then carries on with his day. Because, hey, there are worse things to be mistakenly called, right?
The man thanking “Spider-Man” is none other than Ruben Rabasa, best remembered from his instantly iconic turn in I Think You Should Leave. While he’s not listed on the movie’s IMDb page (yet!), it’s undeniably him. That white hair! That big gray mustache! That cheerful, slightly shrill voice! He may not be saying any of his iconic lines (“Oh my god, he admit it!” or, “Oh, nice” or, “Stinky!”). He may not be advocating for a steering wheel that doesn’t fly off while you’re driving. And he may not be accusing anyone of loving their mother-in-law. But anyone who has watched I Think You Should Leave will instantly recognize this star.
Yeah, there are other things going on in this trailer. We see Jonathan Majors’ big-screen debut as Kang the Conqueror, one of the greatest villains in Marvel history. (He first appeared in the Loki Season 1 finale.) Bill Murray briefly appears as Krylar, a character without much Marvel history to go off. The trailer’s eerie take on “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” makes a nice soundtrack for the increasingly creepy Quantum Realm drama that Lang’s daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) unwittingly gets her family sucked into.
But really, this trailer is Rabasa’s to walk away with. Casting him in Quantumania, even for a brief moment? I think it’s a good idea, and I stand by it.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters Feb. 17, 2023.
