We’re now in the final countdown for the MCU’s Phase 5 kick-off with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Before we strap in for a wild return to the Quantum Realm, Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with producer Stephen Broussard about all things Marvel. Broussard not only served as producer for Quantumania, but his most recent projects with Marvel Studios include some exciting moves, including the new Disney+ series, Loki, where fans were first introduced to the MCU’s Kang the Conqueror (sort of), played by Jonathan Majors, as well as last year’s special, Werewolf by Night.

In Quantumania, Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd, is about to embark on an unexpected journey with reality-altering consequences. But first, Lang is living large off the 15-minute fame he garnered from his association with the Avengers. At the same time, he’s dealing with a strained relationship with his daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), due to Scott’s 5-year disappearance from her life. The duo’s relationship, as well as the bond between Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her parents, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), will be tested in more ways than they expect.

During their interview ahead of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s theatrical premiere on February 17, Broussard discussed the 2000-plus VFX shots in the film that bring the Quantum Realm to life, how Majors was duel-cast for Loki and Quantumania, and his talent for exploring the different versions of Kang as we look to the MCU’s future. He also talks about how working on Werewolf by Night compares to feature films and series, whether we’ll see more Marvel Studios specials, and shares an update on the upcoming original series, Echo. You can read the full transcript below, and if you're looking for even more Quantumania, check out the review from Collider's Ross Bonaime regaling Majors' Kang as an "excellent villain, who brings nuance and subtlety to his character."

COLLIDER: I loved Werewolf by Night, and since they never really talk about how something performs, I'm curious, from your perspective on the inside of Marvel, how did it perform in relation to what you guys were hoping for?

STEPHEN BROUSSARD: You know, to be honest, I don't even really know all the statistics, as well, too. I kind of look at it, with anything I make, is like, it's out in the world now and I've done my job, and the response was amazing. You know? I'm so happy for (director) Michael [Giacchino], it felt like Michael kind of came on the scene in a big way, announced his talents as a director, and is now attached to make Them. I'm sure you've seen that, which is really exciting. I was texting him about it a little recently.

So for me, it's like the performance has been… We took this big swing, this weird introducing brand new characters, playing with the style in the black and white, and people really seem to embrace it. So that's my takeaway from that more than viewership numbers and all that kind of stuff. And if you give me another chance to make another special of some sort, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Yeah, I'm hoping this is the beginning of more specials like that. Any comment on that?

BROUSSARD: None to announce right now. I mean, we’re always about making sure we are where we're needed most. So it's always been a labor of love for us, going back to the one-shots, like I made [Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King] 10 years ago with (director) Drew [Pearce] and Sir Ben [Kingsley]. It's fun. I mean, it's just fun to get the opportunity.

It's a different muscle too. I found that the hour-long format of Werewolf by Night more challenging than I thought going in because it's not a pilot that's gonna go somewhere and you're gonna have nine episodes coming after it, and it's not a feature. So it's a weird kind of haiku of a project to fit in there, but it's a different muscle. I've been at Marvel for a while, so the feature side is obviously its own muscle when Disney+ came around, and I put my hand up to work on Loki because I wanted to flex that longer, six-episode arc muscle. And then the hour-long special was kind of interesting. So it's fun. It's about when you've been here for a while, finding ways to get you excited about even just starting with the format has been cool.

I could be wrong, but I think you're working on Echo?

BROUSSARD: Correct, yes.

How is that going?

BROUSSARD: It's going well. It's very different. Like, talking about Werewolf by Night to this. It's a very different tonal sort of thing. I don't want to say too much because there's not a whole lot out there in the world, but it feels very grounded, it feels very spiritual in ways that feel fresh for us. Alaqua [Cox] as the lead is incredibly compelling. I'm sort of hard-pressed to think of something that it feels like outside in the broader realm of the MCU, let alone within what we've done here. So stay tuned on that really cool stuff.

I'm looking forward to it just because it's another different chapter of the MCU. It's not something you guys have explored before.

BROUSSARD: Yeah, and it's always about embracing whatever it is, right? Like embracing a Universal Hammer Horror film, kind of leaning into that and, I think leaning into what's unique about any viewing property. What's unique about this property is that it's much more grounded and it's in rural Oklahoma, which is where it takes place. So it's fun, and it's been an amazing teamwork, and working with that team behind the scenes.

So Quantumania has all the VFX. Literally. I was stunned by how much is in the movie. I know that the VFX industry is struggling to make dates because they're just up against everything. Were you ever concerned that you might not have final effects for release? Were you cutting it close?

BROUSSARD: We always work on the movie until it's the last possible moment. I think that's just ingrained in us as filmmakers, whether we have 10 VFX shots or upwards of, you know, 2000-plus like this movie. So it's a concern inasmuch as everybody wants it to be great, as do the people we work with. I mean, these artists pour their [hearts] and soul into it. They're amazing, talented, we couldn't do without them. A lot of times they're the ones saying, “Well we know we have to deliver this, but we can go one more round on this kind of thing.”

So it's always about a balance, right? There's always a clock. The movie has to come out, has to be finished, pencils down. That's a reality that keeps us all honest. But you sometimes claw into everything, whether it's the mix or the post, or whatever, until the last possible moment.

How much do you feel like you won the lottery by getting Jonathan Majors as Kang because he's phenomenal?

BROUSSARD: Thank you for saying that. Yeah, I do feel like I won the lottery. I worked on Loki, as well, so I was around for some of those conversations. It was like a dual-casting conversation. So I was fortunate enough to be a little bit of a go-between between Kate Herron and the Loki team, and Peyton [Reed], and kind of knowing what it was all going.

I remember hopping on Zoom with Jonathan. He mentioned today he was in lockdown. He was shooting, I belive it was called The Harder They Fall, the Western he made. He was in Santa Fe – and this speaks to the journeymen and the commitment Jonathan has – that he just stayed. He stayed in his hotel during the lockdown. So I reached him in the middle of that, and pitched him all this, and he was so excited, and he was so game for it. The only way I can describe it – it's a phrase I've used a few times – is swiss army knife. There's like a swiss army knife quality to him, and what we had seen. Meaning, you know he's [going to] give you different things, different performances, different guises in these different versions of this character. We've now seen three so far.

And just not knowing where we're gonna go, where the future is, every version we're gonna see, just knowing that you had an actor that was capable of that, and game for that. From our earliest conversations, Jonathan understood the assignment, as they say. Every act in a movie is a leap of faith, right? You know? Like, “I hope this is the right choice, I hope this is the right scene, I hope this is the right actor,” and you have varying degrees of faith in it. But, to use your phrase, once it started to come together, I definitely felt like we won the lottery. Once you see what he's capable of, he's just amazing.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters February 17. You can check out what Jonathan Majors has to say about Kang in our interview with the cast of Magazine Dreams for Sundance below.