We have half a mind to chalk this up to a joke that only Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s cast is in on, but the number of times that the film has been compared to the works of Shakespeare is nothing short of alarming.
If it truly was Shakespearean, perhaps the first scene would have involved Quaz speaking to the audience and laying out the gist of what was going to happen, thus enabling us to leave the theater in hopes of avoiding having to witness that atrocious ending.
Still, the players are the experts of their own craft, with both Kathryn Newton and Jonathan Majors having dropped Billy Shakes’ name when speaking about the film, and given the magic of the creative process, we can imagine that bits and pieces of the Quantumania process may have felt like Shakespeare, final product notwithstanding.
Corey Stoll, who brought M.O.D.O.K. to uncanny life in the film, has piled onto the conversation, championing comparisons with Ulysses, Iago, and Macbeth in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Exactly. They’re all building blocks. You couldn’t play one without the other. That death scene, in M.O.D.O.K.’s mind, he’s lying there with Horatio. It’s Hamlet’s death right there. So it’s funny from the outside, but from the inside, it’s all real.”
Admittedly, watching the film unfold from M.O.D.O.K.’s point of view would have been nothing short of fascinating. From the perspective of the heroes, you wouldn’t have been able to buy a more uncomfortable character, but the surreal aspect that would no doubt come with M.O.D.O.K.’s perspective could have been the kick it needed for all we know.
At the end of the day, perhaps it’s for the best that the Quantumania-Shakespeare sentiment is nestled firmly in the minds of the cast rather than the public, otherwise we may have seen black flags being flown above the film’s poster, and not for the reason they usually were back in Shakespeare’s day.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently playing in theaters.