Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania‘s theatrical run had a less than stellar theatrical run as it ran out of steam pretty quickly after a big opening weekend in mid-February. Much of the dropoff has been attributed to the generally poor word of mouth around the film, which was essentially an offbeat sci-fi B movie dressed up as an MCU flick. Writer Jeff Loveness has been the target of significant ire from fans who have consistently criticized some odd edits and lack of stakes in the film’s third act. Interestingly enough, in an exclusive interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, Loveness confirmed that one part of the film’s ending was significantly altered from his original drafts; now, in a new interview, he’s revealed further changes to the film.
In an interview with Backstory Magazine, Loveness confirmed that he had written the death of a member of the Ant-Family into an early draft of Quantumania. “We were going to kill Hank at one point,” said Loveness, “and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated.” Loveness is a huge comic book fans and has written books for Marvel Comics. When he was hired for Quantumania, I was told that his understanding of the source material was key to Marvel Studios being brought on board, so it’s not too surprising that he was going to “reanimate” Hank Pym in a very comic book-y way. “His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them,” he explained before adding, “yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that… that didn’t go too far.“
Given Loveness‘ admission that he liked his own idea, it’s hard to believe he was the one who cut the idea from the script and that it was likely done by the studio somewhere during the editing process. The revelation by Loveness continues to call into question just what went on between early drafts and even early screenings of the film and the final product. Reliable plot leaks suggest a much different cut of Quantumania existed at one point and set photos confirm that the final scenes of the movie were reshot roughly 6 weeks before release. While this news won’t stop the “bad writing” bandwagon from rolling, it’ll hopefully at least give some fans a reason to stop and think about who’s responsible for what when they see a film. Writers write. Editors edit. And someone else makes all the final decisions.
