Peyton Reed on Ant-Man 3 and his failed Fantastic Four movie

When the first Ant-Man film was released in cinemas in 2015, the film functioned as an entertaining follow-up to Avengers 2: Age of Ultron, which a few months earlier told about the fight against the villain Ultron. Eight years later, the superhero embodied by Paul Rudd is one of the central figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and gets its biggest appearance yet with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The third part of the Ant-Man series is not just a simple sequel. It heralds phase 5 of the MCU and thus acts as the starting signal for the second chapter of the Multiverse saga. This time around, Ant-Man is the first Avenger to meet the next big villain: Kang the Conqueror is about to become new Thanos built and should accompany us in its various incarnations for a few more years.

MCU Phase 5 launch: Peyton Reed interviewed about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania plays an important role in the MCU framework. The creative mind behind the film is Peyton Reed, who already has the first two parts implemented has. He has also directed rom-coms such as Down with Love and Breakup with Obstacles. In the Star Wars universe, he directed the return of Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian. We caught up with him for an interview and talked about the continuation of the Ant-Man series.

You can watch the trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania here:

Moviepilot: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the third installment in the Ant-Man trilogy and kicks off Phase 5. He is also associated with Loki Seasons 1 and 2 and plays an important role in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. How did you make sure it’s still an Ant-Man movie in the end?

Peyton Reed: We’ve returned to an element that we introduced in the first Ant-Man film: the Quantum Realm. We explored this place in the sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, but we’ve never gone as deep as we did in Quantumania. We wanted to make the story a real epic and put Ant-Man in a situation that is impossible to get out of. The characters in the film quickly dive into this subatomic universe and have to realize that there are infinitely many civilizations and worlds. And they find out it’s home to one of Marvel Comics’ greatest villains of all time: Kang the Conqueror, played by the awesome Jonathan Majors.

In the finale of Loki we already got to know a variant of Kang. What was the biggest challenge for you bringing the villain to the big screen?

I wanted to turn the Kang from the comics into a tangible character. It is malleable, alive and breathing – a multidimensional character. Those are exactly my favorite villains in the MCU: the ones whose plan you understand and with whom you can even sympathize to a certain extent. Kang is not only cruel, but also a broken man. In addition, he has an unexpected relationship with one of the other main characters, namely Janet van Dyne. As the film progresses, we find out that she didn’t tell her family all about her time in Quantum Realm. She kept a big secret: she met Kang.

What idea did the whole story start with? What is the Quantumania origin story?

We’ve always known that when we make a third installment, we wanted to mix up the familiar Ant-Man elements a bit. That’s when we came to the Quantum Realm and wondered what it really looks like down there. The fate of Janet van Dyne was even more important to us. Trapped in the Quantum Realm for years, she has transformed into a vibrant heroic figure down there. When she’s back on Earth, she hands out pizza at the family dinner. It quickly becomes clear that something is missing.

So she had to go back to the Quantum Realm.

Once we bring the Ant-Man family to Quantum Realm, we’ll find out more about who Janet really was down there. We explore the many layers of her character alongside this odd place. Suddenly we have to realize that she knows this alien who can give her a flying creature – all these little mysteries we found very exciting during the development of the film. We didn’t want Quantumania to be set exclusively in San Franscico. We want to delve into the Quantum Realm to explore family dynamics in a very strange setting.

When did you and Kevin Feige start talking about Quantumania?

As we were on the final stretches of Ant-Man and the Wasp, we started having “what if” conversations. It was all about what things we would like to try out in a third part. We definitely wanted an even bigger threat to Scott and Hope. She should be even bigger than Thanos in Endgame. That was obviously an ambitious goal, but then we looked at the roster of villains from the comics who haven’t appeared in the MCU yet. For example, there would be Doctor Doom from the Fantastic Four comics and many other opponents. Kang made the most sense to us because he’s a time-travelling conqueror, and time has always been an important theme in the Ant-Man films.

So Kang was always plan A?

Yes, exactly. From the earliest stages of development of Quantumania, we’ve wanted to bring the character from the comics into the MCU. When Jonathan Majors was cast we couldn’t wait. It seemed very poetic to us to position Kang as the antagonist of Ant-Man and Wasp: the smallest Avengers are the first Avengers to meet the next big villain. This brings a fascinating dramaturgy to the film. And then of course there is the relationship between Kang and Janet van Dyne, which causes further conflict.

Many strange things are happening in the Quantum Realm and weird characters appear. Which of the funky ideas were you most surprised to get approved?

We really worked with a lot of weird concepts and characters in the making of the film and incorporated a lot of them into the film. That was one of the main reasons that making Quantumania was so much fun. There’s a character called Veb played by David Dastmalchian. He was in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, but in a different role. Back then he played the hacker Kurt, now a completely different character. I don’t want to reveal too much. It’s a strange alien who takes on Kang as a freedom fighter and is very fond of Scott Lang for a reason.

When I saw the film, I often had to think of sci-fi fantasy stories like John Carter and most recently Strange Worlds. What were your inspirations for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?

There are many different things that have shaped the look of the Quantum Realm. A major influence were the science fiction paperbacks I devoured in the 70’s and 80’s. The covers alone were beautifully designed and showed these fascinating extraterrestrial worlds. Otherwise Flash Gordon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Heavy Metal magazines were a big inspiration. Moebius too, of course! I wanted Quantumania to be like a grab bag filled with all the things I loved as a kid and still love today.

You already mentioned the Fantastic Four. I know you were working on a film adaptation in the early 2000s. Have you also been considered to direct the new Fantastic Four movie in the MCU?

I became. But I said no.

Oh why?

I developed a Fantastic Four film at Fox a long time ago, but it never materialized. So when I got the chance to do the Ant-Man movies, I put everything I love about the Fantastic Four into those movies. Both series have a lot in common. It’s about dysfunctional superhero families. The Fantastic Four has the Negative Zone and Ant-Man has the Quantum Realm. Quantumania in particular has allowed me to live out many of my Fantastic Four fantasies. I’m still very curious what [WandaVision-Regisseur] Matt Shakman out of the first Fantastic Four movie in the MCU.

Can you reveal exactly why your Fantastic Four film didn’t make it to Fox?

That was a long time ago… I think around 2002, 2003. I worked on the film for a year at the time. So long before the MCU. Kevin Feige was a junior executive at Marvel at the time. At some point it became clear that Fox was unwilling to invest the necessary money, especially in the visual effects. They also wanted to go in a completely different direction tonally. I felt like it wasn’t possible to do the Fantastic Four movie that I wanted to do. So we broke up.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantmania hits theaters on February 15, 2023.

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