Marvel Studios are well-aware of the marketability of "What If?" scenarios, and that extends far beyond the upcoming animated series of the same name.
Months, years, and sometimes even decades after a film's release , new content from the cutting room floor surfaces. Whether that be in the form of unused concept art , behind-the-scenes bloopers, or fully-edited scenes that did not make the final cut, Kevin Feige and company have always been known to pepper social media platforms with nuggets of MCU past.
NEWS
Peyton Reed has been busy posting content from the Ant-Man archives on the Twitter machine as of late.
When answering fan questions on the social media platform ( with this one coming from comedian Tom Scharpling ), Reed revealed a first-ever look at a deleted scene from Scott Lang's debut flick.
While on his Twitter spree, Reed shared another behind-the-scenes image of Paul Rudd, with this one being from the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp. Rudd is holding an enlarged (normal-sized?) bread clip with the "best if used by" date of May 2nd.
WHAT THIS MEANS
While the lotterty ticket scene failed to see the light of day, there are still strong emotional connotations that can be taken away from this still image.
Before becoming the fan-favorite bite-size hero, Scott Lang was a desperate criminal. When he first appears on-screen in the MCU, he is exchanging punches with inmates before leaving prison. Lang has come a long way since fans first saw him, and this image further enforces his past desperation. As he fills out a lottery ticket, Lang's hopeful half-smile is met by Tom Scharpling's character's concerned disapproval. Scharpling's body language further conveys something between judging Lang's dark past, or being ashamed of his resorting to gambling to make a quick buck.
Getting a comedian like Scharpling to fulfill the role of the sandwich shop clerk means there were likely some joking exchanges between his character and Lang. All of this analysis is inferred; however, it makes sense knowing other scenes in this context. The eventual Ant-Man heir was met with a harsh reality check in the infamous "Baskin-Robbins" scene , where Paul Rudd's Lang is unceremoniously fired from his new ice cream-scooping job because of his criminal history. And, well, because Baskin-Robbins always finds out. While comedic, it still hammered home the unfortunate truth that Lang's acclimation to everyday life would be more difficult than convincing Tony Stark that his "Time Heist" was not based off Back to the Future .
Paul Rudd is set to return as Ant-Man in an untitled third installment , with a release date still unknown.
