02x01 - The Making of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

[bunniefuu]

[BREATH TREMBLING]

CASSIE: Where are we?

[JANET BREATHING HEAVILY]

We always loved doing

the unexpected with Scott Lang.

[THUDS]

FEIGE: He is arguably the character

that is the most underestimated.

STEPHEN BROUSSARD:

I think back to making the first film,

which was one of the titles

that, when we announced,

people kind of looked at us strangely,

like, "Really, Ant-Man?

"You're going to make a movie about that?

Are you kidding?"

PEYTON REED: We had no idea.

"Is Ant-Man going to work?

Are people going to come see it?"

We were fortunate that I think audiences

really latched on to Scott Lang,

and I think they did

for the same reasons I did.

Daddy!

You can't just show up.

SCOTT: I wanna to be a part of her life.

He is not a super scientist

or a billionaire.

He's just a regular guy

who sort of happened upon this suit

and this technology and got sucked

into this insane Marvel Universe.

When we first started with Ant-Man,

we were a palate cleanser.

Because we were always coming after

the kind of finale-big

Marvel story, the Avengers story

that was ripping people's hearts out.

And ours were light and they were fun

and they were sweet.

But at one point, Ant-Man became the key

to saving a literal universe

What if we could enter the Quantum Realm?

FEIGE: in Avengers: Endgame.

And that is not something

I think people would have predicted

after his first appearance.

So carrying that tradition, we thought,

"What do we do with

another Ant-Man movie?"

And that's really when we hit upon,

"Let's use this film

"to kick off Phase Five."

The film that kicks off Phase Five

- is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

- [ALL CHEERING]

PAUL RUDD: One of the things

that was really exciting was

knowing that what we were doing

was probably going

to surprise some people.

Like, "Wow. I can't believe

this is an Ant-Man movie."

[BOTH GRUNTING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

Cut it!

[EXCLAIMS]

[SCOTT SCREAMS]

CASSIE: [ECHOING] Dad!

SCOTT: "Word of advice.

"Look out for the little guy."

RUDD: Ready? Kang walks in.

Ready.

So you see him.

And then And then, I blow it up.

REED: Camera is not going to see

Kang at all before.

But we're gonna see Paul,

we're gonna see Scott's expression

not knowing what it is.

- He pushes her in.

- Oh.

Then he gets blasted away.

Then we reveal Kang.

Oh!

REED: I always knew it would be great

to build to a movie like this.

[CREATURES CHITTERING]

As a kid, I was a big Fantastic Four fan

and Avengers fan,

and I remember stories

where Doctor Doom would shrink down

and you'd realize,

"Oh, there are whole civilizations

deep down there."

They're worlds within worlds,

and it's populated.

And wouldn't it be great to be able

to get to that at some point?

From that were the early seeds

for what Quantumania could be.

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

BROUSSARD: This was all sort of

established in the second film

Mom?

BROUSSARD: where Janet is rescued

from the Quantum Realm.

We hint at what

the Quantum Realm could be,

we hint that there's maybe more

than just a lifeless void down there.

There's even some Easter eggs

if you go back and slow down

the second film, where you see

what looks like subatomic cities.

It's me.

BROUSSARD: And she's wearing clothes,

that, "Where did these clothes come from?"

Somewhere in the back of our mind,

we knew if we ever were

lucky enough to get to a Part 3,

the seeds for that idea,

the seeds for going from

small San Francisco crime movies

to a sci-fi epic that has more in common

with Lord of the Rings or Star Wars,

that was the starting place

for Quantumania.

But we were very conscious of

this film feeling like its own thing.

And we spent a year concepting this film.

It's the longest run of concept time

that I've ever had on a film at Marvel.

REED: The way this hood is hanging over,

that's pretty cool there.

Because you can just barely see the eyes,

so that then when there's the reveal

Before we release

One of my big influences on this

was just going through

old '60s and '70s and '80s

science fiction paperbacks

and looking at the covers.

And they were all about just

creating these whacked-out worlds.

But also, I think you can't do a movie

like this without looking at Moebius.

Things like Flash Gordon.

So literally,

we had everything on the table.

The best thing about

doing a sequel

is the opportunity to work

with the people you worked with before.

So there's a familiarity.

You don't have to go in like strangers

and kind of feel your way out.

When you're lucky enough to get to tell

a third film in your series,

it means that you've been together

with some of these cast members for years,

and with that comes a lot of trust

about the kind of story you're telling.

It's anchored by these amazing actors,

you know, and the choices we made

going back to that first film.

And you look at actors

like Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd,

Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer,

who joined in the second film.

These are heavyweight talents.

These are absolute world-class actors,

which help sell the craziness

of this world.

- Show us!

- Show us!

[WOMAN CHUCKLES]

KATHRYN NEWTON: You're going to love it.

We'll see about that.

RUDD: Scott Lang,

he's had a lot to digest.

We start this film.

The events of Endgame have happened.

And now, I think that,

for the first time in many years,

Scott is able to take a breath

and kind of sit back

and spend some time with his daughter

and enjoy just being present

in his own life.

But that doesn't last that long,

that peace.

Dad!

[SCOTT BREATHING HEAVILY]

JEFF LOVENESS:

Scott is just a dad who realizes

that he's accidentally

brought his daughter

into this world with him now.

And now he sees, like,

"Oh, man, I can't really play this

"as loose as I usually do.

"I got to keep my daughter safe."

And so I really tried

to lean into the likeability

and the everyman charm of Paul Rudd.

On top of that, he can deliver any joke

and make it ten times better

just by saying it.

CASSIE: Hmm.

It's like we're camping.

We love camping.

CASSIE: We've never been camping.

But we've always

talked about it.

He is just endlessly coming up

with different ways to come at a scene.

You know, we work very hard

on the screenplay and,

and get it where we want it,

and we sh**t that.

But we always mix it up

and, you know, nine times out of ten,

Paul's going to figure out a better,

funnier way to tell that story.

[WARBLES]

Your Nobel Prize is in the mail.

It better be.

I just saved eight bucks.

God, I admire you.

Thank you.

LOVENESS: It was really fun

to play Evangeline Lilly

as, like, the straight-edge, high status,

highly capable, highly efficient person.

She really surprised me with her

just dead-on deliveries.

She's been, uh,

really great in this movie.

No pizza in the Quantum Realm?

[CHUCKLES] No. No anything.

You know, Mom, you can talk about it.

If you want.

I'll be honest and tell you

it's been really difficult.

Because I

Every time I revisit Hope,

every time I come back for a new film,

I realize I have to reinvent her,

I have to figure out who she is now,

what that looks like and how to make sure

that it doesn't look like

a completely different person,

like that there's a through line

that you still see Hope

and you feel her.

REED: I think maybe a little bit

of a drift in, right?

- There's a whole thing I can see.

- REED: Yeah, there's a force field

that goes all the way

around this thing, right?

- Okay.

- So taking that in,

a little bit of a, a move in,

and then I'll cue you for, um

You've got to do something.

That's where you dig for the thing.

I used to jokingly talk

about the first film,

like she was just always in a bad mood

and kind of had attitude.

Okay, we can try this and when he fails,

I'll do it myself.

LILLY: But by the second film already,

I felt like I had to drop that,

because she was in a much better place.

So, each film, I'm like,

"Wait, who is she and how do I play that?

"And how do I make sure

that it's still Hope?"

And it's been a challenge,

but a challenge that I welcome.

[WARBLES]

[SIGHS IN EXASPERATION]

[CLICKING]

- Awesome.

- If only Cap could see you now.

LILLY: In Ant-Man and the Wasp,

Hope brought her mother back

from the Quantum Realm,

and was very, very excited.

I think she might have had

little girl fantasies

about what that reunion would be like.

Mommy and I will

tell each other everything.

We'll be best of friends.

I missed you so much.

I missed you too, jellybean.

What we don't see

between the last film and this one

is that she wasn't so open.

She wasn't so intimate.

She wasn't so vulnerable.

[BREATHLESSLY] Do not move.

[ALL PANTING]

There was a closed-off part of her

that Hope couldn't reach

and it hurts.

Hope and Janet, working through

the gaps in their relationship.

[WHIRRING]

So, you've been studying

the Quantum Realm?

- Mm-hmm.

- Why didn't you ask me about it?

I tried, Mom.

A lot.

You never wanted

to talk about it.

Michelle and I were really passionate

about that part of the story.

And we spent a lot of time

making that really honest.

We didn't want it glossed over.

We didn't want their tension to be cute.

You said there was nothing

down here.

Why didn't you tell us about this?

I will explain everything,

but right now

- I need you to trust me.

- Then make me trust you!

I started to get really excited

about the movie

once we talked about Janet.

HANK:

Janet, what is he talking about?

LOVENESS: This is Janet's history

of v*olence coming back.

This is Michelle Pfeiffer's Unforgiven.

How many worlds will die

if you get out?

Not yours.

LOVENESS: This is that movie

with a legendary movie star,

and it's her past coming back

to destroy her family.

And Michelle brought so much

pathos and guilt to this character.

I couldn't b*at him.

He was too powerful.

What did you do?

[PANTING]

MICHELLE PFEIFFER: This is the first film

where I think we really get to know Janet.

I do think she struggles

with feeling like an outsider.

It's interesting. On the previous film,

I just wasn't there for that long.

REED: And, cut! Yeah. Great.

PFEIFFER: I think

I sort of maybe left the last one

feeling still a little bit of an outsider,

because my visit was so brief.

[GASPS]

Let's go home.

But this one, we were really in

the trenches together

for a very long time.

I even said to Michael one day,

I turned to him and I said,

"I'm just so happy

that I got to know you on this film."

It's watching and learning

from each other.

And, you know, Michael is hysterical,

no matter what you give him to say.

I love ants.

I [BLEEP] love ants.

DOUGLAS: There's just a fun factor to it,

to get into this other world,

you know, the Quantum Realm.

And "anything goes" is a trip.

What I discovered

about Michael Douglas in these movies

is how funny he is.

You read my book?

Every g*dd*mn word.

I think the general audience

thinks of Michael

in, you know, sexy thrillers,

and his great commanding voice,

and he's an incredible dramatic actor.

But his comedic chops are fantastic.

She had some questions, okay?

I can't help if people

are inspired by me.

He really is Hollywood royalty.

So to get him as Hank Pym

in that first movie was exciting.

40 years ago, I created a formula

that altered atomic relative distance.

What does that mean?

[WARBLES]

I learned how to change

the distance between atoms.

REED: And to build this character of Hank,

who is a mentor character to Scott.

But he's kind of a bent mentor, right?

Hank, I'm a thief.

I'm a good thief, but this is insane.

There's some

morally gray areas, uh, about Hank,

and he can be a bit of a curmudgeon.

But I love Michael's energy

in a big way in this movie.

I would've just broken you out

with ants.

All right, you know what? Family meeting.

Can we have a family meeting?

Isn't that what we're doing?

Yeah, I mean about this.

About everybody

being so fine with this.

MAN: Here we go.

[STAGE BELL RINGS]

We had discussions about who

the villain of this movie was going to be,

and we loved the idea of pitting Ant-Man

against a major Marvel villain.

You're an interesting man

Scott Lang.

Kang the Conqueror came to mind

because I was a fan of Kang's

since I was a kid, in the comics.

[OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING]

That excited us, to take the Avenger

who might be perceived

as certainly the tiniest Avenger,

and putting him up against this

powerful, powerful multiversal villain.

KANG: You're an Avenger?

Have I k*lled you before?

[SCOFFS] What?

They all blur together

after a while.

Audiences have seen a version

of this character in the series Loki.

This is wild. [CHUCKLES]

He Who Remains.

It's a very different character.

It's just a variation.

LOVENESS: He Who Remains

is kind of squirrelly guy

who hides away at the end of time,

and this is the guy he's afraid of.

This is Kang the Conqueror.

This is the version that every other

version of him is terrified of,

so terrified that they had to ambush him

and banish him down to the Quantum Realm.

What is this place?

[BREATHING HEAVILY]

KANG: Once I get out of here,

I can take any universe I want.

The Ant-Man franchise, within the MCU,

has a very clear ethos

has a very clear rhythm to it.

I had the benefit of stepping into

a song that was already playing.

Today we conquer eternity.

[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]

[CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING]

REED: The Marvel movies, I think,

are at their best when you have a villain

that is a really compelling character.

A villain who has a very clear agenda

Just be glad I need you.

REED: A villain who also has this side

that you kind of relate

to their point of view despite yourself.

We wanted Kang

to really, really embody that.

We're going

to get out of here.

[SIGHS]

KANG:

She's gonna open the door

[JANET CHUCKLES SOFTLY]

KANG: and you'll be there.

KATY O'BRIAN: When it came to the costume,

Kang is very much

this futuristic character.

He's very foreign in a lot of ways

to our culture and to our world.

So he has a very different,

very sleek, futuristic appeal.

That's what conquerors do.

They burn the broken world.

And they make a new one.

It's always a challenge

when you're bringing

a Marvel Comics character

from a two-dimensional page

into a living, breathing person

in a movie.

Because a lot of those designs,

almost all of them were,

you know, originated in the '60s.

But we looked at all the panels

and we really embraced these things,

and how can we do the sort of

21st-century version of that thing?

Taking visual cues from the comics

and, and making them feel real.

[WARBLES]

[THRILLING MUSIC PLAYING]

SAMMY SHELDON DIFFER:

This was probably

the most difficult costume

on the film to make.

The concept was drawn in a way that

you couldn't tell what the fabric was,

whether it's hard or soft,

so we had to experiment.

I think this is the third version

of how we solved the problem.

IVO COVENEY: What Peyton was really

keen on was the lines of this

It was this line.

- Yeah.

- Comic book accurate.

So he wanted the size of that collar.

He wanted these lines flowing down.

And although we had that, they had to be

broken up to allow for more movement.

Starting out, they brought the costume

completely into the trailer.

And I did take a moment.

And then once I put it on,

I went, "Mmm, this is it."

You know, like, there are very few moments

in my life where you go, "This is it."

[CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING]

MAJORS: There is a energy within the suit.

It makes you stand up straight.

You know, that's just how it's built.

There's mysticism about it, you know.

It's iconic.

I think one of the hardest

things in this film

from a design point of view

was to find that balance

of a certain amount

of familiarity about things,

but not be exactly what you think it is.

One of the things that I looked at

quite early on were

natural photography

and electron microscopy

and just trying to find colors

and textures

to help take it from

it just being this sort of

hard surface, technological world

to having this slightly more

organic feeling to it.

And that's quite a tricky thing,

to strike that balance.

I just started with some

initial sort of sketches,

put together a bunch of reference boards

and materials for Peyton,

just to create

the whole vibe of the world.

MAN: Look up. Spin.

It's coming in, it's coming in,

it's coming in.

And, bang!

Look at him. Pry him off.

[PFEIFFER GRUNTS]

This world that they've [CHUCKLING]

created was, um, pretty spectacular.

We worked with this

relatively new technology,

The Volume, where they actually project,

in 3D, all around you on the stage.

So you are really there

and you're not having to pretend.

This changes everything

we know about life,

about evolution,

our place in the galaxy

Holy sh*t!

That guy looks like broccoli.

[GRUMBLES]

HTAY: When using The Volume,

from a design point of view,

you have to start early

MAN: All right, everybody.

We're gonna get started now.

HTAY: to feed the process.

It's a little bit like bringing

postproduction up front

and bringing preproduction, production

and postproduction all together.

So that you can actually,

in effect, sh**t on it.

Give us as much in camera

as we can, really make it feel real.

Not only that, we had these

incredibly imaginative,

otherworldly characters,

and the costumes and the makeup design.

You really felt like you were entering

this sort of strange and frightening

and magical universe.

REED: Once we get into our

Michael and Evangeline are here.

Rock guy in the background.

Right, guys?

So I imagine that we can use him here.

You'll be able to get him

in the foreground,

like floating pieces of rock

right in the foreground.

This, I think would be great.

The biggest challenges

on this film is inventing every look

and every idea from the ground up.

And at every angle, we've asked ourselves,

'What's the Quantum Realm version of this?

"What's the Quantum Realm

version of aliens?"

We call them aliens because

that's the term we're used to,

it's the shorthand we're used to.

But essentially, it's not.

It's a whole different world

and a whole different way

of looking at species and life.

CONOR O'SULLIVAN:

We needed to go quite extreme.

Nothing should be like it is in our world.

It should be

an ephemeral sort of universe.

[CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING]

O'SULLIVAN: We were getting

some very unusual designs.

This guy is Pixel Man,

he was a great favorite.

The idea of him is that he looks like

a collection of pixels

floating in the space

that are kind of concentrated

and become the body of a human.

We had a lovely guy called Kintsugi Man.

This lovely gentleman here

actually was one of our stuntmen.

So we knew he was going

to have to perform stunts.

So I wanted a fairly robust makeup.

I mean, obviously, he couldn't have

anything as delicate as those.

We completely covered him,

and he had prosthetic pieces.

You can see these are all built up

to give him this sort of

slightly broken look.

We also had a lovely chap

we called Ribbon Man,

because I wanted it

to look like his face was unraveling.

So we drew, like,

a bandaged effect on his face.

And then we had these ribbons coming off,

but we had the inside

of the ribbon dark blue,

which, if you looked

at the back of his skull,

looked like it was the inside of his head.

Some of the things you really couldn't

physically make them.

To actually sculpt them

with your hands would be very difficult.

So I just exploited 3D printing

like crazy.

That was the first for me, to actually

do a 3D-printed mold and produce pieces

that were to merge with the skin.

There are moments when you are

reading the script, and you go,

"I just struggle to understand

what that is as a concept."

And then you kind of get into it

and you start spitballing ideas,

and artworking up stuff.

And then it tends to have

a life of its own.

Good example of that would be

the controls for Krylar's yacht.

[SQUELCHING]

Where are the controls?

Those are the controls.

[SQUELCHING]

What the hell?

O'SULLIVAN: Initially,

it was called a dielectric gel,

and it's used for waterproofing

electrical components.

It's a very sticky, mucusy jelly,

and it's not really of any use to us.

But I started mixing it

with another material,

and I was able to harden it

and change the properties of it

to make it much more useful

as a prosthetic.

REED: And let's start that up!

HTAY: Sometimes you just have to

take a risk and experiment,

and I think we got

a great physical result.

And I've got to say, Michael Douglas

was an absolute professional.

- Hello.

- Whoa!

VEB: Hi.

[CHUCKLES] Hi.

Did you drink the ooze?

- Why can I understand you?

- VEB: Oh.

Great. That's the ooze.

Hey, everybody, It worked!

Ooze worked!

[ALL CHEERING]

Veb, he's just this blob

with these weird, creepy arms.

Hi. I am Veb. You just drank me.

I did What?

This is amazing, because it's so weird.

We knew we needed someone to inhabit it

in ways where would come to life,

even though it's a fully CG character.

You wanted to feel personality

and feel the performance of that.

VEB: I have holes.

BROUSSARD: Very early on, we hit upon

the idea of inviting David Dastmalchian

back to the Ant-Man franchise

to play a completely different character

than he had played

in the first two films.

Oh, that's Kurt.

He was at Folsom for five years.

He's a wizard on that laptop.

- Nice meet you.

- Nice to meet you, too.

When Peyton told me about the role,

I'd never done anything like this before.

What would this look like?

How would they involve me?

Was I just going to get to go to a booth

at some point and give my voice?

To me, what I wanted

was the opportunity to, like,

be there on set.

A big hole.

How many holes do you have?

I'm sorry.

Is that a personal question?

I don't have any holes.

DASTMALCHIAN: When I stepped foot

for the very first time

on the set of the Quantum Realm,

it was like all my childhood dreams

of making movies coming to life.

There was so much practical

set building happening there,

and then all the magnificent imagination.

We got to make sort of like

a Marvel Wizard of Oz

which I felt was, like,

"What an insane opportunity."

You can read minds?

Yeah, and I really wish

I couldn't.

Everyone is disgusting.

[ELECTRICAL RINGING]

- Could you please stop thinking that?

- Sorry.

LOVENESS: I had so much fun because I got

to write a corner of the Marvel Universe

that basically felt like fresh territory.

REED: You guys will take off your hoods

You let go of him,

take off your hoods,

and reveal that you're fuzzy,

cute little owl creatures.

LOVENESS: We got to populate it

with so many creatures,

and they built subcultures

and they built languages.

[SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE]

[GRUNTS]

LOVENESS: It's just incredible.

Every second you see on camera

had so much thought behind it,

whereas I'm sitting here on camera

and I was like, "Well, you know,

"there's a broccoli guy, He's drunk.

"He speaks the broccoli language."

So, what's your story then?

JANET: Move.

It's time. Follow me.

LOVENESS: We just tried

to make this as heightened

and as colorful

and as vibrant as possible.

At the same time, you had no rules,

but you also had to make your own rules.

And luckily, those rules could be,

you know, whatever you wanted them to be.

[CLANKS]

MAN: Step out, please. Glasses on.

- [LAUGHING]

- Yes! Yes!

MAN: All right, and back it up.

- What do we do with our hands?

- MAN: Back it up.

- Superhero stuff.

- Superhero stuff.

Oh, look at that! She's a natural.

One of our philosophies

that we've always applied

is to just go back to character

and to root it in character.

And the science fiction

and the world building is fun.

Dad!

[MUSIC PLAYING]

But, ultimately, it's window dressing

to this story about a father

and his daughter reconnecting.

[GRUNTS] Dad! [PANTING]

RUDD: As far as having Kathryn

now play Cassie as a young adult,

it was great because it's life.

It's much different dealing

with a 6-year-old

Mommy's so happy you're here,

she choked on her drink.

RUDD: than it is somebody who's 18.

SCOTT: Cassie. What happened?

Jail stuff.

And so, I think the thing that was fun

was watching Kathryn

kind of take on Cassie

and play a character who wants to find

her own way, discover who she is,

and maybe butt heads

with her dad a little bit.

- [SCOTT GRUNTS]

- Okay. I have a suit.

Yeah, I noticed.

Oh, man. When I read the script

for the first time,

the thing I was the most stoked on

was Cassie's character.

[GRUNTS]

REED: Yeah. One more.

- MAN: Look there.

- Okay.

For about, I don't know,

[STAMMERS] five years now,

I've been pestering Marvel Studios

about their female characters.

Saying, like, "We're all very competent.

"We're all very kickass.

"We're all very serious,

"very responsible women who make sure

"that we keep the boys in line

and we do everything perfectly.

"And when I look around

at the women in my life,

"there are so many

other colors to the female

"that I would like to see in your movies."

And then I read the script

and Cassie is just

She's like, zany and brazen

and kind of, like, irresponsible

in a fantastically, um, pure way.

- And Kathryn k*lled it.

- [GASPS]

[WHIRRING]

[WHISPERS]

Please let this work.

[GRUNTS]

[EXCLAIMS] Yeah!

[LAUGHS]

It worked!

Look at me.

I'm such a d*ck.

It's never too late

to stop being a d*ck.

Okay?

REED: Audiences who have a relationship

with young Cassie,

Abby Ryder Fortson, who played her

in the first two Ant-Man movies.

I feel like they want to know

that the daughter of Scott Lang

grows up to be funny.

And grows up to be a bright, optimistic

person in the way that Scott Lang is.

That was really, really

crucial for this movie.

And I'd seen Kathryn in a screen test

that she had done for another Marvel role.

- Director Fury sent you.

- Wow. Who?

BARTON: He knows where I live.

- Oh. Oh.

- BARTON: Fury.

You mean Mr. Good Eye.

- No.

- BARTON: Yeah, he loved you.

Like I said,

I was on a rooftop at Third

There's more cookies. Oh, my God.

It's like, wow, she has this brightness

to her. She's funny.

She has this youthful optimism about her.

And she has the physicality.

She's an athlete.

So I really wanted someone

who could do all the physical demands

that that role required.

And Kathryn was just terrific.

For a lot of the movie,

our heroes are split up.

And Scott and Cassie

are on one side of the story.

So I needed someone

who could really, really hang with Scott

because it was important

for the dynamic of the movie.

So I needed an actor

in the role to play Cassie

who could really spar with Paul Rudd.

This is not our fight.

Just 'cause it's not happening to you

doesn't mean it's not happening.

[ELECTRICAL RINGING]

She's disappointed in you.

- I got that. Yeah. Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Paul is the best.

He was so welcoming.

- MAN: Boom!

- [GASPS]

[OBJECTS CLATTERING]

- REED: Cut it.

- [LAUGHS]

That was too close.

And he told me not to hold back.

Like, on our second day of sh**ting,

I was just trying to be invisible.

Back up.

NEWTON: I was like,

"Okay, just don't mess up

- "and then, like, you'll be okay."

- Back up.

[ALL LAUGHING]

- Get back!

- Oh! Oh!

[LAUGHS]

NEWTON: And we had this scene

with Michelle and Michael

and Hope and everybody.

And Peyton was like,

"Okay, now do one for fun."

And I was like, "Okay."

So I started improvising.

[LAUGHING] And I did,

like, whatever I wanted.

And then afterwards, Paul was like,

"You've got to do that."

He's like, "You don't want

to finish this movie

"and feel like you held anything back."

He's like, "'Cause that's the worst thing.

And the truth is, You just have to kind of

"throw it all down, do everything you got

"and just make sure you didn't hold back."

And so that's what I took away from Paul,

and I'll take that on forever,

to every project.

That was nice.

[STAGE BELL RINGS]

NEWTON: The first time I tried on

my Cassie superhero costume

was when it really felt real.

I'll never forget it,

because it fit pretty perfect.

REED: It's a distinct suit.

No other hero has that. Boom!

- No other hero has what?

- REED: No, we were just talking about

DIFFER: Cassie's suit is very much

inspired by the ant suit,

although Scott doesn't know it exists.

You have a suit?

Wait, you have a suit?

DIFFER: So she's kind of taken

references from that

and had help making this.

So it's a bit of a surprise in the film.

The purple is obviously

from the comic book.

And the fun thing in this

is that she's wearing Converse.

- REED: I like where we ended up, man.

- MAN: Good job.

Because, as well as doing Cassie,

we're also working on Ant-Man and Wasp.

We're working on all the other characters.

They have to come along together.

I think if you were doing one,

from a sewing perspective,

it's probably about two weeks' sewing,

but that doesn't include

the backpack and the helmets,

all their extra bits and pieces.

Even though we had a long time to prep,

there was a change in the concept

of what the suits were during prep.

So originally they were meant

to be Quantum Realm suits,

and then that changed.

We almost had to start again,

so they became less of a kind of team,

and slightly more individual.

[ENGINE WHIRRING]

[DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING]

REED: For this movie,

we needed a character

who sort of had this backstory with Janet

and it was a role that needed

someone who had a real presence.

Um And we thought of Bill Murray.

Janet Van Dyne?

I thought you were dead.

Been a long time, Krylar.

Officially, Lord Krylar now.

I fought like hell

against that.

I was intrigued by the idea

of putting Bill Murray in a Marvel movie.

I was obviously a fan of his movies

growing up in the '80s

and watching him on Saturday Night Live.

But I also knew that,

pre-Saturday Night Live,

Bill Murray had played the Human Torch

in the Fantastic Four radio show in 1975,

and I listened to that as a kid.

So we talked about that.

[BLOWS RASPBERRY]

LOVENESS: Bill came on set

the first couple weeks.

He was giving just these micro notes

on joke construction.

"Switch that word with that word

and maybe take a pause right there."

And you're like, "Bill Murray

knows what he's talking about."

We never wanted anyone

to guess who he was playing.

The Internet is full of all these rumors,

and no one knows who is going to be.

We chose someone

they would literally never guess.

We tried to find the deepest cut

Marvel character we could

and we found this random character

from a random Hulk comic book

in the Quantum Realm called Lord Krylar.

[SCREAMS]

For the costume, you know,

I talked with Stephen and Peyton

about, "Who is he?

Do you want him more m*llitary?

"Do you want him more civilian?

"Can we get away with a suit,

or do you want him more bizarre?"

And I think that, um, vis dev

went through a whole load of things

of it being very, very like, Quantum

and weird and fashiony

and strange textures and stuff,

and that became too theatrical.

So we came up with this blue

and cream and gold combo. [CHUCKLES]

Uh, and just tried to have

a bit of fun with it

rather than, um, getting into too many

kind of crazy patterns and stuff.

Bill brings a lot to the table,

and what you don't want to do is

swamp that with

a confusing, complicated look.

In the end, we pulled it all back

and we get one of these guys

that's in the French Riviera,

that has their yacht,

and just added little Quantum elements

like weird bits of beading,

and strange lines running across the body.

So there's some continuity of shapes with

Will's designs for all the environments.

When Peyton came to me in the first place

and we started talking

about this whole project

and the idea of the Quantum Realm

being this vast worlds within worlds,

he wanted it to feel like it was huge.

I'm really happy with

how Janet's homestead turned out,

because it's very much

in my initial sketches

and playing with ideas to Peyton,

this idea of subatomic particles

and that maybe the abode that she lived in

was such a tiny particle,

and it crashed down through various Quanta

and landed on a plain and had d*ed,

and its energy had dissipated over time.

And that became this kind of

cave-like structure.

That was realized in quite a nice way.

This is the exterior of Janet's homestead,

and what we wanted to do here,

we were talking about

from early on, was almost

to have it like a prairie land,

like an old Western, like an old-timer

who was seeing out their days.

And this set was meant

to echo that, really,

the idea of some weird

Quantum prairie land

with these strange Quantum plants,

and this would be developed by VFX

and extended into

much bigger, greater rolling plains.

These rock walls, again,

with the idea of Quantum energy down here,

that somehow the Quantum energy

had solidified and created these patterns.

And again, when we pull out

into the wider sh*ts,

we're going to have these patterns

running through the landscape,

as well as the actual crops.

[CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING]

Something again that was strongly pushed

throughout this whole show

is trying to create

really interesting compositions.

This idea of the sphere

and concentric spheres,

and here we have Janet's homestead,

which is a series

of concentric spheres in itself.

And in many ways, this room is

a precursor to Kang's Celestium as well.

Those little design ideas

that were developed out from this idea

into the Celestium itself.

MAJORS: Whoa!

We are on the Richard Attenborough

Stage at Pinewood,

and this is Kang's Celestium

with his Time Sphere.

It's something that I really wanted

to keep as part of Kang's language,

was this circular or spherical motif.

I looked at a lot of Japanese Kintsugi

in the way that you have

those sort of cracks through rocks,

and you can seal it up

and re-perfect things.

Which is kind of what Kang is doing,

destroying stuff and then rebuilding it

in a fashion that he sees fit.

I built an empire

down here, Janet.

And I'm taking it with me.

HTAY: Again, I really wanted to create

very kind of graphic moments

in terms of composition

and try to give Bill Pope, our DP,

an environment in which

we could actually frame up Kang

and it almost looked like panels

from comic book or graphic novel.

MAN 1: Ready Three, two, one, action!

- Katy.

- MAN 2: And, bang!

Go, Steve.

Here he comes. And, bang!

REED: I loved the idea of building

a sort of barbarian type

warrior character for this movie.

That felt like something

that we really hadn't seen so much.

You see a little in Thor,

you know, with Valkyrie,

but somebody who really felt like

straight out of a Robert E. Howard,

you know, pulp novel.

I had worked with Katy O'Brian

on The Mandalorian

and I thought she was terrific.

She's a bodybuilder and a fighter,

and for real.

[THUDS]

She's got great presence,

and we needed someone that was strong

and could embody that aspect of a leader,

but also the wisdom of a leader.

And Katy makes great impact in that role.

With Jentorra, I really liked the idea

that it was a revolutionary.

It was something different.

It was someone who was

fighting for the greater good,

as opposed to maybe

suppressing the greater good.

I want people to see, you know,

a strong female role in a positive light.

Because this is like

a dream role in a lot of ways. [CHUCKLES]

What are you doing here?

CASSIE: I'm rescuing you.

How?

When it came to the costume, I was

so glad that Sammy, the costume designer,

called me and she was like,

"Hey, have you seen the costume yet?

"Have you seen what we're pitching?"

And I'm like, "No."

She's like, "Okay, I thought

you might want to know

"you're pretty exposed."

And I was like,

"Okay, I'll go to the gym. Thank you."

Jentorra, we were looking

more at a kind of

growth, bone architecture.

And seeing what we could do

with her armor,

to make it more like she's found

a skeleton of a tiny creature

and used that.

He built his citadel

on the bones of our people.

O'BRIAN: They were trying to connect it

to the world,

because our people, they're very much

of the world, of the Earth,

of the Quantum Realm.

So, the blue color that we have

kind of meshes in with

things that you might find

in our environment.

Once we added the hair,

makeup, everything, it just clicks.

You know who you are

and who your people are

and where you're going.

Welcome back to the Quantum Realm, Scott.

I've been waiting a long time for this.

BROUSSARD: M.O.D.O.K.

was always a character

that we wanted to get into the MCU

somehow, somewhere.

A mechanized organism designed only

for k*lling.

Now I get it. It's an acronym.

Actually, that's M.O.D.O.F.K.

BROUSSARD: Such an odd design,

a little bit off-putting,

but really great and memorable.

[CASSIE GRUNTS]

REED: And we thought, like, does Kang need

a henchman in this movie?

And we talked about

all these things.

And M.O.D.O.K., if there's ever a context

for M.O.D.O.K. to succeed

in live action in the MCU,

it feels like the Quantum Realm.

And it hit me

like the loudest bell I've ever heard.

Like, "Wait a second."

"What if we have Darren Cross

become M.O.D.O.K.?"

Hi, Hank.

Darren?

MAN: There we go. All right, we're set.

And three, two, one, action!

[ANT-MAN GRUNTS]

When we originally sh*t Ant-Man,

Darren is, like, arrested

at the end in his super suit.

And I was like, "Okay, great."

MAN: Here we go. And, action!

Then we went back for reshoots

and nobody told me anything.

And I was looking at the sides,

and this is, you know, uh

Darren becomes like

a tiny little ball of red goo.

I was like,

"Oh, can't really come back from that."

And then there was another iteration

where he just sort of shrinks infinitely

into a little dot.

And I said, "Okay,

that's survivable in this world."

BROUSSARD: But clearly he would have

been hurt very bad.

He would've been d*sfigured

by this accident.

So we started thinking about that,

and we started to think that maybe

there's an origin story in there

for M.O.D.O.K.

REED: That was exciting to us.

And I remember the day

that we called Corey,

because Corey Stoll,

you may not know this,

a massive comics nerd growing up,

knew who M.O.D.O.K. was, loved the idea,

and really, really embraced it.

I was like, "Yes, I'm in."

REED: Action!

Welcome back to the Quantum Realm, Scott.

I've been waiting a long time for this.

Darren?

You're looking

at a man set free.

I've created so much more here

than you could possibly imagine.

REED: And cut it!

That's the fulfillment of a dream.

I didn't know I had.

Nowhere left to run.

I would have never thought

that that's a character

that I'd get to play or want to play.

[YELLING]

I'm the ultimate w*apon!

STOLL: It's just

so ridiculous and so broad.

But, I mean, it all makes so much sense.

I think the audience doesn't even know

that they're waiting for this

resolution to my character.

I bet you thought

you'd seen the last of me.

Just now noticing

the baby legs.

They're not baby legs.

You think you're so smart.

Scott Lang, the man

who took everything from me.

Who stole my whole life.

STOLL: And the filming technique

they were using

It could go one way,

It could be like a real pain,

with dots on your face

and you have this camera

and you don't know

what you're going to look like

and it was so incredibly satisfying.

It's, in some ways,

I feel like the ideal way to act.

Because you're not waiting

for any technology,

even though the whole performance

is so based on technology.

You're not waiting for lights, for camera.

You're not waiting for sound.

You're not waiting

for hair and makeup even.

You know, you're just

It was just me and the rest of the cast

in this open space.

It felt like a really cool play rehearsal,

except that all this rehearsal

is being captured

as data that can be turned

into this performance.

You always were

a brother to me.

I was?

I was.

And at least I d*ed

an Avenger.

Yeah.

- You did.

- Yeah. No, it's

- You're in.

- [DARREN SIGHS IN RELIEF]

We really liked making an Ant-Man film

as important, as integral

to the MCU going forward

as any other film.

REED: I think that's an important b*at.

As you step out of that thing

and land here, that looking to her,

you know, taking your time with that

before you then turn to this

- I do?

- REED: Yeah.

BROUSSARD: It's teeing up

Kang in a very big way.

It's teeing up the future of this

very fearsome, very formidable foe

within the MCU.

It's going to help show us

where the MCU is going next.

But I love that we're getting to make

a trilogy out of Ant-Man. [CHUCKLES]

And, shrink!

Yeah, back to one.

Let's try one more right away, guys.

That's great.

BROUSSARD: The fact that

not only he gets a trilogy,

but that Peyton will have

directed all three films,

that Peyton has seen the trilogy home

is so exciting to me.

PFEIFFER: I've loved working with Peyton.

I feel lucky

that I've had someone like him

to kind of guide me.

[SLOW INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]

REED: Shockwave that comes out

[IMITATES expl*si*n]

and just take you out of frame there.

We'll do a separate sh*t of a second thing

which is like [GRUNTS]

Coming from that port.

PFEIFFER: To be able to do

the kind of superhero action

and the heart and the humor

He just gets it.

This is, uh, a day one of, uh, Ant-Man.

I want to thank you all for being here.

I'm so psyched about this movie.

We're going to have a great sh**t.

I know a lot of you have been waiting

a very long time to sh**t.

And today's the day. Let's do it.

- Thank you so much.

- MAN: Yeah!

[EXHILARATING MUSIC PLAYING]

[ANT-MAN GRUNTS]

REED: I grew up with Superman: The Movie

and Star Wars and Raiders

and all those things.

And I'd always

wanted to do a movie like that.

So, for me, it was really gratifying

because we were able to just paint

on this really large canvas.

- Okay.

- Boom! So you know what to do.

RUDD: Scott Lang has been

really important in my life,

and it really has been

an amazing group of people

I've gotten to spend

a good chunk of time with.

Even in Civil w*r, I think I had

that scene where we're on the tarmac

and I'm meeting Captain America

for the first time,

and some of the other Avengers.

The whole thing was surreal,

and I felt a little bit like

the character that I was playing.

I still feel that.

I can't believe I'm, I'm on this team.

I've treasured it. I really have.

I know before we ever started

sh**ting this thing,

I'd tell people, you know, I'm going to

"What are you working on?"

I'd say, "Ant-Man"

"Ant-Man?

What's Ant-Man?"

"It's a Marvel movie."

"Ant-Man?"

Because not many people know the character.

And they'd say, "What are your powers?"

I'd say, "Well, I can shrink."

They'd say, "Okay."

"But I can also talk to ants."

[LEGENDARY MUSIC PLAYING]