The following addresses spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Steer clear if you haven’t yet seen the movie, and still want to go into the movie unscathed.
Even as you were able to tell from the extended trailers for Marvel’s new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, there will come a moment when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) battles Kang (Jonathan Majors) in hand-to-hand combat, trying to stop the conqueror from stepping through a portal and escaping from the Quantum Realm. It has been made very clear by Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) that letting Kang escape would be a disaster. We touch on the fact, in our Ending Explained piece, that Hope (Evangeline Lilly) returns in time to help Scott vanquish Kang, and the two return home to Earth.
But was that always going to be the case?
Rumors that circulated online before the movie opened revealed that either Scott, Hope, or both were in danger of getting stranded in the Quantum Realm after their battle with Kang. This would have left Hank (Michael Douglas), Janet, and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) back on Earth, desperate to find a way to rescue their loved ones. So when I got a chance to speak with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania screenwriter Jeff Loveness, I asked if that option ever was on the table. And he admitted to CinemaBlend:
Yeah, I mean, we gamed out (and) pitched through all that stuff. Yeah. And I can see on paper some of that stuff having merit. But at the end of the day, it always just felt like we were retreading the end of the second movie. And it felt like it was just going to follow the Endgame route, too. It's like, ‘Oh, eventually he's going to get out again.’ It's certainly a valid story point and all that. But I'm happier with where we brought it because it's almost like a hero's journey.
He brings up a very good point. In the closing moments of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) embarks on a quick excavation mission into the Quantum Realm. But it happens during Thanos’s snap, leading to this scene:
There’d be no reason to repeat that, leaving Scott in the Quantum Realm. Because as Jeff Loveness says, we’ve already seen him escape in Avengers: Endgame. And also, Cassie now understands better how to access the Quantum Realm, and it should be safer to visit with Kang the Conqueror gone. Plus, Loveness told us that there’s an exciting wrinkle that comes from having Scott escape the Quantum Realm, and now wrestle with what he just did.
As Loveness tells us:
Like, he gets thrust into this new world. He goes on this adventure. He returns home, but shaken and different than he used to be. He starts out so carefree and earnest, and his family is keeping secrets from him. He becomes a hero for his daughter again. He learns all that. He comes back, but now that carefree energy is gone. Much like Frodo coming back to the Shire, you know? And now he's got this dread building, and he is trying to bury that and just eat that shitty cake and have a birthday for his daughter. But he knows that, like, maybe he messed up. There is a world where you want him to have that clean hero move. But, I think there's also something very interesting going forward. If Scott Lang is the guy who saved the universe in Endgame, what happens when he's the guy that accidentally fucked the universe going forward? (laughs) Check in in about five or six years. Let's see how this story plays out.
Given the fact that Jeff Loveness is writing Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, he probably knows a thing or two about where the slate of Upcoming Marvel Movies are heading. We also know that Avengers: Kang Dynasty is going to be directed by Shang-Chi filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, keeping it in the Marvel family. At the very least, we know that Kang will be the focal point of these stories moving forward.
