by The lead writer of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Jeff Loveness, admitted partial responsibility for omitting Evangeline Lilly‘s Wasp from a pivotal scene in the MCU film.
Although Ant-Man 3 was billed as the next “big [Avengers-level] movie,” in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the threequel mainly concentrated on the relationship between Scott and Cassie Lang and the Pym/van Dyne family.
However, Lilly’s Wasp was somewhat underused in this narrative because Scott and she took on Kang the Conqueror without her character receiving any development until her third solo film.
Even more sequences for Lilly’s Wasp were omitted from the final version of the film; these scenes would have improved the family dynamic that served as the threequel’s main driving force.
Writer for Ant-Man 3 on Cutting Wasp Scene
In an interview with IGN, the head writer of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Jeff Loveness accepted responsibility for the removal of a sequence starring Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp.
A young actor who was scheduled to portray Hope Van Dyne’s son in this section of the threequel was in the aforementioned scene.
When questioned about the sequence, Loveness said that it would have been a part of the probability storm scenario but “just didn’t fit in the flow” of what the movie was doing:
“Oh, yeah. And it’s my fault. I think it just didn’t fit in the flow of what we were doing. There was more of that probability storm scene where Scott had all the multiplications and the Schrodinger’s cat thing. There was more of a psychological element to it too, in earlier scripts, which was really cool.”
In the end, he accepted responsibility for missing the opportunity, saying that he felt “bad for the kid”and hoped he hadn’t harmed the young man’s career:
“But… it’s on me. I think it just seemed a little disjointed. There was more story of where Kang was going to explain what you’re walking into and what you’re seeing. But it’s on me. I feel bad for the kid. Sorry. I hope his agent wasn’t screaming at him that he really fucked his career. It was me. It’s my shoddy writing.”
Loveness reiterated that the chopped footage was a part of the probability storm when they spoke with SlashFilm about the incident. As Hope ascended into the top section of the storm, she experienced “more of a psychological element” and saw glimpses of the Multiverse:
“Oh, yeah. I mean, you’ve interviewed and done all this stuff, and there are always plot lines or things that just don’t really work its way into the flow of the movie. I don’t know how much I can directly say, because I might pick some of this up later, but that was part of the multiversal engine core, that probability storm part. Scott’s was obviously more of the Schrödinger’s cat thing. Hope’s originally had a bit more of a psychological element, like you were hitting the fumes of the Multiverse and getting glimpses of stuff. She was in the upper strata of the storm, and then Scott was kind of down below.”
Although Loveness praising Lilly for her efforts on camera in which she attempted to capture every emotion possible, this ultimately proved to be a little too muddled for the situation. Once more, he accepted full responsibility for Hope and her son’s exclusion from the final round:
“But ultimately it was a little confusing. Like, why are two vastly different things happening to them? So it’s my fault as a writer by not being clear enough. And [Evangeline Lilly] did incredible work. There’s a lot of good Hope stuff that I think I’ll try to explore later on. But Evangeline, she’s a really expressive actor and put a lot of emotion in there. It was great stuff, but it’s kind of my fault. I’ll take the hit for that. It was better to streamline it to more of that fun sequence, which made its way in.”
Writer of “Ant-Man 3” Accepts Responsibility for Deleted Scenes
While discussing Ant-Man 3‘s successes and failures, Jeff Loveness hasn’t held back, admitting that he wasn’t able to incorporate Hope van Dyne’s son in this sequence.
With Ant-Man 3 clocking in at 2 hours and 5 minutes, there are undoubtedly many scenes like this one that were left off the final product.
Due to this specific exclusion, Scott was forced to manage the probability storm primarily by himself while attempting to fix Kang’s Multiversal engine core. Unfortunately, this prevented Hope van Dyne’s son from stealing the show.
With Avengers: The Kang Dynasty now booked as his next Marvel Cinematic Universe role, the main question at this point is how Loveness will handle situations like this going forward.
But he’ll face the task of working with dozens of new heroes and characters in addition to Team Ant-Man, the highly anticipated sequel should provide him more time to work with.
In theatres all throughout the world, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is currently showing.
