While Marvel Studios had its fair share of challenges in making the MCU's latest movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, one crazy situation forced the team to stop production for a short time.
Ant-Man 3 went through its trials and tribulations just like every Multiverse Saga project thus far, having to shoot during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to make its February 2023 release date. Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and the rest of the team did their best over the past year to complete the necessary work required for filming, with reshoots taking place only a month before its release.
Lilly even got candid about her experience with shooting during lockdown, explaining how difficult it was to be in that bubble while praising Ant-Man 3 as the best movie of the trilogy after getting through all that work.
Paul Rudd on Manure Situation in Ant-Man 3
During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd looked back on a strange delay that he and his castmates faced while shooting Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Rudd reminisced on a few days in which he shot material for some of the Quantum Realm scenes, remembering how the set smelled awful with dirt all over the place. He found out later that the dirt was actually manure, leading to the entire set being shut down for a day to replace the surface on which the actors were walking:
"They have like, dirt, and they try and have as much practical stuff as possible. You really feel like you’re on a planet or you’re in some weird space. One of the things, we went in and there was dirt all over the floor, and we were shooting with 150 other creatures and people, and it doesn’t smell good at all. And throughout the day, it was kind of getting worse and worse, and the next day, it was overbearing, and we realize they probably got a deal on the dirt because it wasn’t dirt, it was manure. They actually kind of had to shut it down for a day and then bring in some new dirt. I don’t think anyone knew. The Quantum Realm just reeks!"
Rudd also discussed that situation with Yahoo, noting that the team tried to do as much practical work for the Quantum Realm as possible, with the whole thing being set up on a giant sound stage using The Volume technology. Joking around about the manure that was used in place of dirt, Rudd exclaimed that if the movie as a whole was "anything like the substance [they] were walking on," then they were all in big trouble.
Ant-Man 3 Gets Stinky During MCU Shoot
Studios are known to use just about any means necessary to make every new movie and TV show run as effectively and efficiently as possible, from shooting in unique and unexpected locations to utilizing any number of real-world materials to give the stories an out-of-this-world feel. For Ant-Man 3, this particular instance brought the use of manure onto the set of the latest MCU outing, which certainly made for a stinky affair as Paul Rudd looked back on his experience.
Thankfully, this method combined with Marvel Studios' continued efforts with CGI-created storytelling looks to make the Quantum Realm feel as real as possible while Rudd and his team take on their most challenging adventure to date.
This will work in concert with the Quantum Realm's technologically-advanced core city as Kang the Conqueror looks to enact his reign upon the subatomic environment, and later, the entire Multiverse.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will debut in theaters on Friday, February 17.
