Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's head writer, Jeff Loveness, put some blame on himself for cutting a memorable scene from the MCU movie with Evangeline Lilly's Wasp.
Although Ant-Man 3 was hyped up to be the MCU's next "big [Avengers-level] movie," the threequel largely focused on the family dynamic between Scott and Cassie Lang and the Pym/van Dyne clan.
Unfortunately, Lilly's Wasp ended up slightly underutilized in this story, as she and Scott took on Kang the Conqueror with only a couple of small developments coming for her character in her third solo movie.
There were also even more scenes for Lilly's Wasp that were removed from the final cut of the movie - material that would have added to that family dynamic that drove the threequel forward.
Ant-Man 3 Writer on Cut Wasp Scene
Speaking with IGN, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania head writer Jeff Loveness took the blame for a scene that was cut from the movie featuring Evangeline Lilly's Wasp.
The scene in question featured a child actor who was going to play Hope Van Dyne's son during this sequence in the threequel.
When asked about the scene, Loveness explained that it "just didn't fit in the flow" of what the film was doing and that it would have been part of the probability storm scene:
"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 put the blame on himself for cutting the moment, saying that he felt "bad for the kid" and that he hopes he didn't screw anything up with 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 also discussed the moment with SlashFilm, reiterating that the cut footage was part of the probability storm. Hope's moment in the storm had "more of a psychological element" with glimpses into the Multiverse as she flew into the upper part of the storm:
"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."
This ended up being a little bit too confusing for the scene, although Loveness praised Lilly for her work on camera portraying all of the emotion that she could. He once again took the blame, fully taking responsibility for Hope and her son not making the final cut:
"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."
Ant-Man 3 Writer Takes Responsibility For Cut Scenes
Jeff Loveness hasn't been shy about discussing what went right and wrong for Ant-Man 3, owning up to the fact that he wasn't able to include Hope van Dyne's son in this scene.
With Ant-Man 3 coming in with a 2-hour-5-minute runtime, there are surely plenty of moments like this one that wound up on the cutting room floor.
This particular exclusion led to Scott having to deal with the probability storm largely on his own, as he tried to fix Kang's Multiversal engine core. This unfortunately didn't leave any room for Hope van Dyne's son to take the spotlight.
The big question now is how Loveness will manage moments like this moving forward, as he's already set for his next MCU gig with Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
Thankfully, that highly-anticipated sequel should have more runtime to work with, although he'll have the challenge of working with dozens of new heroes and characters outside of only Team Ant-Man.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in theaters worldwide.
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