Ant-Man doesn't have the strength of Thor or the cunning of Black Widow or even the fighting skill of almost any Avenger. However, what he does have is heart and a smart tech genius like Hank Pym helping him out every step of the way. That is why, with Hank's help, Ant-Man will save the universe.
CAUTION: Before I go further, there will be SPOILERS to the Avengers: Infinity War film in this blog post, so if you haven't seen it yet, may want to avoid this one.
Saving the world can be a dirty job...for an ant...man.
EVENTS OF INFINITY WAR:
As many of you may remember, Thanos snapped his bling fingers and eviscerated half of all life as we know it. Thanos, now the hero of his own story, is gone and the gauntlet destroyed with all the infinity stones missing. It really is a mystery what happens next.
There are a lot of gaps, leaving many people to speculate what will happen next, but I have a good idea what may happen. The heroes who dematerialized at the end of the movie are clearly not dead. How do I know this? Contracts and comic books!
Pretty much everyone who disappeared (Black Panther, Spiderman, the Guardians of the Galaxy, to name a few) all have another movie coming out in Marvel's Phase 2 schedule. I know, kind of lame way to know that, but it makes the most sense to me. Also, if you read some of the Infinity War comics, or any comics, you know death is pretty short-lived.
This means someone has to save them.
Ant-Man and Hawkeye were the two most noticeable no-shows in Infinity War, only mentioned by name (even though I think Ant-Man was doing some miniature spy work that we couldn't see, but I'll get to that later).
Ant-Man is going to make a huge impact on the story moving forward, along with another character teased at the end of the movie: Captain Marvel.
Reader: "So, how does Ant-Man save the world? Tell me or I'm leaving!"
Fine, I'll tell you, just giving everyone some quick background. Geez!
HOW ANT-MAN SAVES THE UNIVERSE:
If you have watched the any of the Ant-Man and Wasp trailers recently, you know that they are facing off against a villain who seems to have a firm control of time and reality. Luis, in one of the trailers, hints at the villain stealing Hank's technology that allows the wielder to access the quantum realm.
Now, if you really have been paying attention to all the movies, you know that the quantum realm has been hinted at a few times.
In the first Ant-Man, Scott Lang is trapped in the quantum realm after his battle with Cross and barely escapes. In Doctor Strange, Stephen flies through the quantum realm for a short period of time.
I believe this will be a major part of the next movie because I think the quantum realm is where everyone went after the Thanos-led Armageddon. They're all trapped there, and Ant-Man will need to bust them out!
Ant-Man, who I believe was monitoring every move Thanos made during Infinity War, stayed in a miniature state and was waiting for the best opportunity to stop him. But, when he arrived on Vormir, Ant-Man stayed behind to find the best location to enter the quantum realm with the least amount of problems.
Before Ant-Man even goes to Vormir, the hard work was already done. Hank refines the technology to handle the conditions, maybe with the help of Tony Stark, and Captain Marvel will assist in some capacity when retrieving them. Maybe she has knowledge of the quantum realm from her alien interactions or can travel there due to her Kree-infused DNA.
In broad terms, that is how Ant-Man saves the universe: By going into the quantum realm with Captain Marvel, where all time is irrelevant, and traveling back through time to save them and preventing Thanos from getting the stones in the first place.
I am aware I'm not the only one with this theory, there are others who thought of this as well. ScreenRant also has a theory that's nearly identical to mine with more industry-related knowledge. Definitely check it out.
Anyways, that is my theory. There may be many like it, but this one is mine. Let me know your theories in the comments or feel free to tweet or email at me. Now it's time to sit back, relax, and hope my theory pans out. July 6th can't come soon enough!
-J.J.