New official artwork from Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania revealed suit designs that were rejected by Marvel Studios.
While Quantumania might not have been the biggest critical or financial hit, at the very least, it contained some pretty neat designs in it.
For one, there is Corey Stoll’s MODOK. The character went through a few iterations, but what audiences got on-screen ended up being impressively close to the source material.
Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror also made his way through various designs before reaching what is arguably one of the best costumes in all of the MCU.
New Lang Family Superhero Suits Revealed
Andy Park, the Director of Visual Development at Marvel Studios, revealed new artwork on his Instagram page showing off some rejected superhero suit designs for Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
The piece sees the whole Lang family together in the Quantum Realm. Interestingly, these designs also featured a double helmet concept that was not seen in the film.
While the key trio had colorful looks in the final cut, these rejected concepts depict how their base suits originally utilized these classic colors even moreso.
The designs seen in the finished product have far more black detailing and aren’t quite as punchy.
The suits actually hold a striking resemblance to what Scott Lang wore in some of the time travel tests he helped with in Avengers: Endgame. This suit went on to be the inspiration for the matching team suits the squad had for their Time Heist.
This resemblance is even more obvious when looking at what Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne could‘ve sported.
In the post, Park noted that this was “an early concept painting,” and that the “double helmet was just a safety measure:”
“Here's an an early concept painting I did of the whole family having a Quantum Suit look during preproduction. The double helmet was just a safety measure. Their helmets could come off inside the larger helmet I would imagine. And these quantum harnesses could come off as well. Fun to explore!”
The artist then admitted that the art “ended up having a look like it was a still in an animated film:”
“Side note: I had to turn this around pretty quickly & it ended up having a look like it was a still in an animated film or something. I thought that was cool!”
At the end of the day, the movie opted to not have the double helmet. Instead, its key characters often had their helmets off. Scott, Hope, and Cassie all did get to keep their signature colors.
Helmet-on-Helmet Action
It’s not too hard to see how these designs were scrapped. It’s a little difficult to justify helmets over helmets—something that can look both silly and impractical.
It seems Marvel Studios was quick to ditch the idea that characters needed their helmets on at all points to breathe and function while in the Quantum Realm. Really, the majority of Scott Lang's screen time is spent with his helmet off.
Some fans have been quick to point out how this might contradict previous rules established in the first Ant-Man film. While there is nothing to directly defend the movie’s choices, the situation could be different simply because of Quantum Realm shenanigans.
It would be nice for Marvel to put some effort into explaining that in the future.
As for the suits the main characters did get to wear, while it would’ve been nice to get those more vibrant designs, what did make it on screen were still an impressive part of the Quantumania’s costume design. Though, the outfits aren’t all too different from what the size-changing family wore in their second film and in Avengers: Endgame.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is now streaming on Disney+.
