From Iron Man to Eternals, romance has always been at the core of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It appears that becoming a superhero means you pick up the occasional love interest along the way, and Ant-Man and the Wasp is no exception to this common theme, with Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) becoming partners while also rekindling their romance in classic “second chance” rom-com fashion.
If there was any movie in the MCU that could be deemed a romantic comedy, it would be Ant-Man and the Wasp. Director Peyton Reed was known in Hollywood at that point for his rom-coms Yes Man and The Break-Up, and it makes perfect sense that his entries into the MCU would follow a similar pattern. While Reed insisted that Ant-Man and the Wasp wasn’t a rom-com in the traditional sense, it’s clear to see that his affinity for the genre influenced how Scott and Hope found themselves not just partnering up as heroes again but as lovers, too.
Ant-Man and the Wasp follows all the beats of a second chance rom-com: two love interests are brought back together by fate or chance after a break-up, re-discover what made their relationship so great and get a second shot at finding love. Scott and Hope are an item by the end of Ant-Man, but the events of Captain America: Civil War break them up in both a professional and romantic sense. Scott violated Hope’s trust by not asking her to come with him to Germany and her father Hank Pym’s trust by taking the Ant-Man suit without his permission.
Of course, fate brings Scott and Hope together again. Since their breakup and Scott’s stint on “Team Cap,” he’s been under house arrest and Hope has been hiding from the FBI. But when Hank and Hope power up their quantum tunnel in the hopes of finding Janet van Dyne, Scott dreams that he’s Janet and calls Hank on the off-chance that it means something. He wakes up in Hope’s car, only to realize she’s busted him from house arrest and left an oversized ant wearing an ankle monitor in his place. Hope feels bitter (and rightly so) because of how Scott implicated her in the Accords, and Scott wants nothing more to make amends. Though Hope insists that the mission she needs him for is strictly professional, it quickly becomes clear the two have not lost feelings for each other.
With a second chance rom-com, the two love interests get a chance to work out the problems of their first relationship and have a do-over — this time on a healthier foundation. Ant-Man and the Wasp does this by having Hope confront Scott about his carelessness in taking the Ant-Man suit during Civil War and about why he didn’t ask her to come to Germany. The latter is a tender moment that takes place right before they team up for the second time that day and Scott reflects on what he and Hope could have been if he’d asked her to join Team Cap. Again, the film marries Scott and Hope’s hero business with their rekindled romance to show the pair healing their broken relationship.
The kiss Scott and Hope share at the end of the film is also given much more fanfare than their Ant-Man kiss. The narrative around it makes it feel that, with the completion of a successful mission and this kiss, Scott and Hope don’t just get a second chance at being partners but at finding love with each other, too. Reed writes Scott and Hope’s romantic and heroic partnership as inseparable from one another, making their reunion all the more emotional and giving it a rom-com vibe that makes it one of the most romantic stories in the MCU. With the pair reunited for good after the tumultuous events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, it appears that the characters will go into Quantumania as the partners they were always meant to be, and fans have Ant-Man and the Wasp to thank for that.
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