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While we know the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp take place before the events of Infinity War we do see

That in the post-credits, they are exploring the quantum realm during the snap. Why wasn't he called in for the Battle in Wakanda? Especially since he's not under house arrest anymore, and they'd need all the firepower they could get.

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    Well, it's not specifically mentioned in either of the movies but, it is possible that the other Avengers were unaware of Scott being under house arrest. According to their latest info (as seen in Civil War), Scott was held prisoner at the Raft.
    – Shreedhar
    Jul 31, 2018 at 22:02
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    I thought there was a line in Infinity War where they talk about not wanting to drag Scott into this while he is under house arrest
    – Sethen
    Jul 31, 2018 at 22:22
  • While he’s not under house arrest any more, he’s also not meant to have any access to the Ant-Man suit — the whole point of the Sokovia Accords is to outlaw unauthorised superhero activities. The plan to take Vision to Wakanda wasn’t authorised (Cap’s fugitive team came up with it, an executed it outside of Senator Ross’s authority), and even if it had been, the authorities likely do not consider Lang to be a candidate for superhero missions any more.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Aug 3, 2018 at 17:31
  • Meanwhile, as far as all the rest of the Avengers know, he’s retired, and as mentioned before, without access to the Ant-Man suit. All his activities in the movie could be attributed to the still-fugitive Hank alum or Hope Van Dyne.
    – Paul D. Waite
    Aug 3, 2018 at 17:35
  • maybe it all went too fast and he was aware there was a "problem" but hadn't enough information to realize how big a problem until it was too late ? or he did realize and thought Ava could be a great help and thus started with getting her some medicine so he could bring her with him when going to help ? only guesses tough
    – LilyM
    Aug 7, 2018 at 12:36

2 Answers 2

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In Infinity War, Black Widow notes that

Hawkeye and Ant-Man had both taken deals with the government after they were arrested (along with the rest of Captain America’s crew) in Captain America: Civil War. While Captain America, Falcon, Black Widow and Scarlet Witch presumably went into hiding, the two dads—Hawkeye and Ant-Man—turned themselves [in to] the government so they could be with their families.

Source: Time Magazine

The reason they were left out is to be revealed later - it was apparently quite intentional:

Anthony Russo: There is a very specific story choice why...

Joe Russo: There is a... we have a really interesting story cooked up for both of those characters, and part of that story required that they be under house arrest.

Source: originally from Happy Sad Confused podcast, quoted here.

Also realize that Ant-Man was probably off house arrest only a few days before everything went boom - it's not implied a ton of time passes between the main movie and the scene

where he gets stuck in the quantum realm.

Generally when you're dealing with a big angry Titan and Ragnarok, it's hard to keep track of when a guy gets off house arrest.

They probably also wanted to respect the whole family thing - their choice to make a deal with the government effectively said "we value family over this whole superhero gig" and they respected that.

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  • I expect Doctor Strange could literally turn himself into a government, but why?
    – VBartilucci
    Aug 1, 2018 at 15:06
  • @VBartilucci, I guess, but not Ant-Man or Hawkeye. Although I guess there's Hank McCoy, Secretary of Mutant Affairs in X-Men: Last Stand.
    – ThePopMachine
    Aug 1, 2018 at 15:19
  • This was a pub playing off the many uses of the word "into" As in "A guy walks into a bar...it hurt".
    – VBartilucci
    Aug 1, 2018 at 15:57
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    Note that during that quantum realm after-credits scene Ant-Man is explicitly warned by Janet van Dyne not to get stuck in a "time vortex." Who knows where in time such a vortex might send him? Nudge nudge, wink wink.
    – jeffronicus
    Aug 1, 2018 at 20:48
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    Into a Monty Python sketch?
    – RDFozz
    Aug 1, 2018 at 22:22
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Building off of Heather's answer - remember that at the time frame of IW, Scott was done with house arrest, but still on probation, and as such not allowed to have contact with the Avengers (Or Hank and his fam, but hey, gotta have a movie). So the description that they were "under house arrest" was likely just a simplification for time. We got more details in AM&W.

Also, the time frame of Infinity War isn't (IMHO) more than a day or so from the initial big fight in Manhattan to The Snappening. It's very possible he simply didn't see the news about the initial fight, and even if he did, assumed either it was handled, or it wasn't anything he could help with anyway. He couldn't have known anything about the stakes, or what had happened in Wakanda.

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