Warning: quantum SPOILERS for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are in play! If you haven’t seen the latest from the MCU yet, you have been warned!
There’s been an unintentional point of discussion arising from the ending of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Namely, the reaction to the decision to not strand anyone in the Quantum Realm this time around seems to be the test of how much you enjoyed writer Jeff Loveness’ work on the threequel, though his story’s portrayal of MODOK is a very close second. When it comes to that first piece of the puzzle, there’s plenty of justification as to why Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne were allowed to come home, and Loveness has yet again defended this “controversial” ending.
In remarks captured by Fandom, the finale to Paul Rudd’s latest MCU foray is defended once more. After Kang the Conqueror's defeat, rather than strand Scott and Hope in the land Janet van Dyne had once been exiled to, the pair returned to their home dimension safe and sound.
That's ruffled some feathers, which a writer like Loveness is probably used to. In this round of defensive strategy, he provided the following context that played a huge part in the decision to not strand our heroes in the Quantum Realm:
I kind of love the ending that we landed on. I hear what people are saying but I feel if you just strand Ant-Man in the Quantum Realm again, that is exactly what happened at the end of the second movie, and the way out of it is exactly what happens in Endgame.
Similar to the blunt reason Jeff Loveness shared with our own Sean O’Connell, repeating the same traumatic events of Ant-Man and the Wasp was something all involved wanted to avoid. Although depending on who you talk to, those Ant-Man 3 script leaks suggested that this wasn’t always the case. Rewrites: they save more than budgets, true believers!
Growth has always been a theme of the Ant-Man saga, both in a literal and metaphorical sense, as Paul Rudd’s ex-con went from thief to Avenger to bestselling author, all while being a loving father. So when it came time to create a force that propelled Quantumania’s story, Jeff Loveness was on the same page as returning director Peyton Reed.
The helmer behind the latest Marvel movie offering chimed in with his own thoughts on where this new chapter took things for the Lang/van Dyne/Pym family, and the secret ingredient is just that: secrets! Here’s what Peyton Reed contributed to the Ant-Man 3 debate:
Personally, for our heroes, I like the idea that at the beginning of the movie, Scott is literally an open book. He's told his story to the world through his book. And it's the other members of the family that are keeping secrets from him. Janet is keeping secrets about the Quantum Realm and what her life was like down there. Hope and Hank are keeping secrets from Scott about what they've been working on with Cassie in the basement. Cassie has been keeping secrets from her dad about 'Oh, you were in jail before? What?' So everyone's keeping secrets from Scott and then you wind up at the end of the movie and everybody's secrets are out. Except now Scott has a secret.
What’s comparatively worse than being stranded in the Quantum Realm? Being metaphorically stranded in the “normal” world, with the knowledge that something big and bad is coming. With that sort of context, people just might come around on the ending to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, though the jury’s still out. Let’s not forget, there were some more potentially X-Men-enhanced scenes that could have made for an even more divisive experience.
If you’re looking for more evidence to make your final judgment, don’t be shy about revisiting the Quantum Realm at a theater near you. And seriously, go easy on MODOK. Even if the movie could have used more Michelle Pfieffer, it was a treat to see Corey Stoll back in the MCU, and you know it.
