Wakanda Forever's Anderson Cooper Scene Sneaks In Another Ant-Man Side-Hustle
Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" closes out Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with perhaps the studio's most emotional outing. The film follows the great people of Wakanda after the tragic death of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman).
The film begins with Shuri (Letitia Wright) racing against the clock to save her brother from an unspecified illness. Despite her efforts, T'Challa dies and leaves this world to be with his ancestors. Much of the movie is then set a year after T'Challa's death, showing Shuri's continued study of technology and science while she struggles with her grief. While the film's overall storyline pays tribute to Boseman and his MCU legacy, the plot does work to intertwine "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" with the MCU's overarching story plan. Marvel is known for intricately weaving its films together, and there is one very important Easter egg that fans are spotting, and it's all in preparation for the MCU's next highly anticipated release.
Anderson Cooper's Wakanda coverage features a nod to Ant-Man
Snippets of CNN newscasts are sprinkled throughout "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." The clips show Anderson Cooper giving news that helps to propel the story forward. And sharp-eyed viewers are noticing a nod to another Marvel superhero while Cooper reports the news of the day.
In the Marvel Studios subreddit, u/ChrisCinema wrote, "Did anyone catch Scott Lang is writing a memoir on the CNN news scroll? I got a good chuckle out of that." Fellow Redditor u/joshuastar replied, "'Look Out for the Little Guy'!!" This seems to be the title for Scott's upcoming memoir. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is known to the world as the superhero Ant-Man and first appeared in his 2015 solo flick. Lang is an ex-con who is recruited to break into a house hours after he is released from jail. During the break-in, Scott finds the Ant-Man suit created by scientist Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). The suit allows Scott to communicate with ants and make dramatic changes to his height. And Scott's book detailing his journey from ex-con to superhero isn't the only big news that fans are noticing on the bottom of the big screen. One Redditor believes they saw mention of an autobiography tour while u/caitlumos posted about Scott's potential podcast.
The future is quantum for Ant-Man and the Wasp
Of course, references to Scott are all in anticipation for "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." This will be the third movie centered around Ant-Man, and it's the first installment in Phase 5 of the MCU. The first trailer – released just a few weeks before the premiere of "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" – shows Scott basking in his superhero fame and enjoying life after coming back from the blip. But he is called back into action when his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) creates a satellite that sends a signal into the Quantum Realm. Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), who spent decades trapped inside the Quantum Realm, warns Cassie of sending such a signal.
But it appears her warning is not headed as the trailer shows Scott, Cassie, and the Pyms digging deeper into the Quantum Realm. They will also face Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), and it's a face-off that director Peyton Reed is looking forward to. Reed recently told Entertainment Weekly, "I grew up reading the comics and I knew the character of Kang the Conqueror, who's one of the big, big bad characters in the comics, so to be able to put up our heroes against Kang the Conqueror was a huge thing for us."
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" flies onto the big screen on February 17, 2023.