Despite being 20 films into the MCU, I still get a kick out of their jokey superhero cameos. Most of the best ones so far involve Chris Evans, who seems game to appear in pretty much everything for the sake of a good sight gag.
Highlights include him popping up as Loki doing a shapeshifting impression of him in Thor: The Dark World (which might actually be the best bit of the movie) and his hilarious fitness PSAs in Spider-Man: Homecoming. So, it’s a real shame to learn that a scene as good as both of those was cut from Ant-Man and The Wasp.
In an interview with the Radio Times, director Peyton Reed explained that they wrote a scene in which Michael Pena’s Luis excitedly recounts the events of Captain America: Civil War, with him doing the voice and mannerisms of every character. Now, we do see him recap the events Ant-Man, but the additional footage would have had him re-enact the iconic airport clash from Civil War, too, and making it even more ridiculous and exaggerated.
Here’s how Reed explains it:
“Early on, we had a version where we were going to do a quick version of the tarmac fight from Civil War, with some ridiculous thing where, you know, Captain America has Ant-Man as a baseball and throws him, because the whole thing is Luis’ version of events, right? We came up with all these ridiculous visuals.”
Sadly, however, it was not to be, as Reed went on to say:
“The idea was that this really wanted to be a little bit more standalone and in its own world. We knew that we wanted to continue the story of these characters and then introduce our own characters that were really far more relevant to the story we were telling. Plus the fact that we were coming right after Infinity War, which is really like everyone.”
I mean, I can understand their reasoning here, but mixing together Chris Evans and Michael Pena sounds like it’d make a cocktail I’d want to taste. Plus, there’s the fact that most people are predicting that Evans’ days behind the shield are numbered, meaning this could’ve been just one more on-screen appearance for the hero.
Regardless, hopefully Marvel Studios will continue the trend of unexpected cameos from our favorite characters where you least expect them. After all, they cement the idea of a shared universe and they’re usually funny as hell.
