Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s ending.
After seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, MCU fans only want to know one thing. No, it’s not “where will Kang go from here?” or “will there be an Ant-Man 4?” The question’s everyone’s actually asking is “what in the Quantum Realm went wrong?” The marketing for the movie promised an epic event movie that could maybe rival Avengers: Endgame for high-stakes and scope. The end result, however, is officially a disappointment of Eternals proportions.
One common complaint is that Quantumania essentially has no consequences. Although it looked for a moment there that Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) would be trapped in the Quantum Realm after defeating Kang, the film then pulled a happy ending out of nowhere and returned the heroes to Earth, robbing the story of what would’ve been an impactful and appropriate ending.
So how did Marvel get it so wrong? It appears that, initially, the filmmakers had the right idea, but Quantumania‘s conclusion was totally rewritten in reshoots. As Twitter user @HailEternal pointed out, set photos from as late as Jan. 10, 2023 depict the cast in the costumes they wear in the movie’s final scenes, thereby confirming last-minute reshoots are to blame for the movie’s sudden about-turn.
Sure, on the one hand, Ant-Man and the Wasp surviving Quantumania is a good thing as it means we get more of them in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and possibly Secret Wars. In terms of this individual film’s quality, however, it was definitely a damaging move. Not just for their own character arcs but also for that of Scott’s daughter Cassie. With Ant-Man 3 being a bust, it’s now all on Avengers 5 and 6 to give Marvel’s smallest superheroes the ending they deserve.
