Trivia / Ant-Man

• Ability over Appearance: Paul Rudd being cast as Scott Lang means he isn't a redhead like in the comics, but Edgar Wright himself pointed to Rudd's natural charisma which would make Scott likeable despite being a criminal in-story; essentially, he was the natural choice for the role.
• Actor-Shared Background: Luis is from a family of Mexican immigrants, just like Michael Peña.
• Author's Saving Throw: Early on there were fears that Wasp would be left out of the movie, due to early promotional materials simply listing Janet as believed dead. This turned out to not be the case and it was confirmed that Janet was the Wasp back in the '60s through the '80s. Kevin Feige mended this further by confirming that Wasp will appear in the movie and will be seen in the future MCU movies after Evangeline Lilly signed a multi-picture contract with Marvel.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Peyton Reed is a huge Marvel fan and seized the opportunity to direct a film in the MCU even if it meant stepping in at the last minute to take over a project previously helmed by a director with serious geek cred. Before the film's release, he went on the record as saying he'd absolutely direct the sequel, which he did.
  • Adam McKay was also a big fan of Marvel, and while he didn't step into the director's chair out of respect for Edgar Wright, he was more than willing to work with Paul Rudd to do rewrites for this film. He thoroughly enjoyed his time working on it, and has expressed interest in working with Kevin Feige again, especially where the Silver Surfer could potentially be involved.
• Creator Backlash: Edgar Wright, the original director of Ant-Man, hasn't watched the film or even the trailer and he says, "It would kind of be like asking me, 'Do you want to watch your ex-girlfriend have sex?' Like, 'No, I'm good.'" Not to mention he hasn't spoken to Peyton Reed, and the last time he ever spoke to him was to tell him not to use his (Wright's) storyboards.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Luis is voiced by comedian Ryuichi Kozuki, who some fans of Japanese dramas would recognize him as Frank in the live-action adaptation of Otherworldly Izakaya Nobu; also, The Wasp is voiced by model Yuki Uchida.
• The Danza: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Luis is voiced by the late Luis Alfonso Mendoza, who both share the same first name.
• Deleted Scene: See here.
• Development Hell:
  • The idea of a potential Ant-Man movie had been kicked around before Marvel had its own movie studio. Once the Marvel Cinematic Universe was founded, there were plans to include him in the Phase One films and be a member of the Avengers. Those plans fell through and he was supposed to have a film in Phase Two instead. The movie was then pushed back to becoming the first part of Phase Three ... until it was decided that this movie would actually be the finale of Phase Two, after Age Of Ultron, and that Captain America: Civil War would lead Phase Three. In short, its release date didn't change so much as its classification.
  • The road to production for this film was so convoluted and Marvel was so unsure of it that they only signed Michael Douglas to a single picture deal. It was only after the film turned out to be a success that the studio scrambled to lock Douglas into a multi-picture contract to make sure Hank Pym would continue to make appearances in the MCU.
• Dueling Works: With the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot. To say Ant-Man curb-stomped Fantastic Four would be a severe understatement—FF turned out to be the most critically-lambasted superhero movie since Elektra and Catwoman, and flopped so hard that it crushed any hope of a sequel, along with derailing the director's career. Ant-Man, while still on the lower end of the MCU's usual gross, still did extremely well and critics were generally favorable to it, so much so that when eviscerating FF, they told their audience to watch this movie instead.
• DVD Commentary: The Blu-Ray has an audio commentary by Peyton Reed and Paul Rudd, Marvel Studios' first movie commentary to include the lead actor.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Paul Rudd's been known to show off his "Dad Bod" (not exactly out-of-shape, but carrying more than a little extra weight) but, like many other Marvel Cinematic Universe leading men before him, got absolutely ripped for this film (to the point where the costume department removed much of the fake muscle padding in the suit because he got big enough to show definition naturally).
• Executive Meddling:
  • A number of rewrites from the Marvel Creative Committee occurred, which Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish had no control over. Eventually, Peyton Reed was chosen as director and Adam McKay was in charge of rewrites.
  • Wright's departure and Joss Whedon's disillusionment after Avengers: Age of Ultron led Marvel Studios to be reconfigured by Disney into a separate entity from Marvel Entertainment.
• Exiled from Continuity: A case that applied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe was brought to an end by this movie, even though the studio had the rights to said characters. While Edgar Wright was working on the film, he requested that Marvel refrain from using Ant-Man or Wasp until he had finished the movie, which is why they were absent from The Avengers. Now that the film has been released, they are free to appear in the MCU. However, he later said he wished for the film to be completely stand-alone with no references to the other films. This did not match the plan for the MCU, so, ultimately, it among other factors led to Wright leaving.
• Fake American: Canadian Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne.
• Fake Russian: American David Dastmalchian portrays Kurt with a very heavy Russian accent in this film, its sequel, and What If...?.
• I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Many refer to Dave as "T.I.", since he's primarily known as a rapper instead of an actor.
• Life Imitates Art: The Georgia State Archives building, which doubled as the Pym Technologies building, was imploded for real on March 5, 2017.
• The Pete Best: Hayley Lovitt makes a nonspeaking cameo as Janet van Dyne/Wasp. She was cast for her "saucer-like, Michelle Pfeiffer eyes". Guess who played her afterwards?
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Despite not involved in the film anymore after resigning due to disagreements but still given credit for story, screenplay and executive producer, Wright is a big fan of Ant-Man, since he collected comics when he was a kid and owns a copy of Tales to Astonish #27 (Hank Pym's First Appearance) and Marvel Premiere #47 (Scott Lang's first appearance).
  • For Peyton Reed, see Awesome, Dear Boy above.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Looking at Peyton Reed's resumé, the last thing you'd expect him to direct is a superhero movie, though he was attached to work on Fantastic Four (before Tim Story) and was close to directing Guardians of the Galaxy. Some of his most notable work prior to this was The Weird Al Show.
  • Comedy veteran Paul Rudd and heavy drama veteran Michael Douglas in a superhero movie.
  • Michael Peña is mainly known for dramatic roles, but plays a more comedic character here.
  • Adam McKay is primarily known for writing grounded, cynical R-rated comedies and the occasional drama, a far cry from the light-hearted tone of a superhero movie.
• Referenced by...: In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, one scene sees Mr. Grooberson (played by Paul Rudd) getting a tub of Baskin Robbins ice cream out of a Wal-Mart freezer.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: A number of the toys (including the Marvel Legends figure from Hasbro) mistakenly depicted Ant-Man's helmet with an open mouth, much like how it's depicted in the comics. This creates some Fridge Logic issues, since the entire reason the mouth is covered in the movie is so that Ant-Man's lungs don't burst while he's shrinking.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Michael Douglas' reason for being in this film.
  Douglas: And most importantly, I did it for my children. They’re so excited. I’ve finally got a picture that they are so excited about. Dad is cool. You have to understand, for most of my career, I’ve done so many R-rated pictures. They can never see any of my movies. Just recently, at 14 and 12, they’re becoming more aware of some of the things that I’ve done. So, this is a lot of fun.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Although Paul Rudd was already a recognizable name, this was the film that showed that he had the chops to headline a tent-pole feature that could succeed at the box office.
  • After starring as Kurt in this film and its sequel, David Dastmalchian started getting much beefier roles going forward, most notably Polka-Dot Man in The Suicide Squad, and Piter De Vries in Dune.
• Throw It In!:
  • The Falcon's role in the plot came about after Adam McKay and Paul Rudd went to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier and fell in love with the character. They casually suggested working him into the plot, and Kevin Feige informed them that it'd actually make perfect sense since Falcon was now living at the New Avengers compound after the events of Age of Ultron.
  • Likewise, The Stinger scene tying into Civil War only came about because Kevin Feige was watching some of the footage from that film while it was still shooting, and decided that having Falcon call Scott for help would be a neat Continuity Nod. "I know a guy" also served as the perfect Ironic Echo.
  • According to Kevin Feige, Paul Rudd was the one who suggested Scott going subatomic and giving a teaser to what the Quantum Realm looks like, long before it would become a plot point in future movies.
• Trolling Creator: The preview for the first teaser was ant-sized ... which is to say that it's almost completely impossible to tell what's going on in it. Luckily, a human-sized trailer went up the next day.
• Troubled Production: If only the pre-production is counted, the movie was locked in Development Hell for the longest time and just as it looked as if the film was finally going to move into principal photography, Edgar Wright announced that he was leaving the project due to creative differences with Marvel, launching a search for a new director who'd be willing to step in and rush into shooting such a major film. Then Marvel announced that the script was also going to be going through some significant rewrites in the mean time. Fans were concerned, to say the least. But the announcement that Adam McKay is a creative supervisor while Peyton Reed directs, with the two doing the rewrites with Paul Rudd, assuaged most fears. And filming went smoothly despite a somewhat constrictive deadline (the only real grumbling that came out about the production was Bobby Cannavale complaining about how every scene involved at least some green screen).
• Uncredited Role:
  • The Russo Brothers directed the post-credits scene as it is taken from Captain America: Civil War.
  • Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan are uncredited for their cameos as Captain America and Bucky Barnes in the post-credits scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt met with Marvel Studios for the part of Scott Lang before Paul Rudd was cast. Gordon-Levitt was previously approached for Peter Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy.
    • Ewan McGregor, Adrien Brody and Simon Pegg were also considered for the role of Scott Lang before the casting of Rudd. McGregor was later considered for Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange.
  • Steve Buscemi was the first choice for the part of Hank Pym before the casting of Michael Douglas, but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts with Hotel Transylvania 2.
    • Pierce Brosnan, Gary Oldman and Sean Bean were considered for Hank Pym as well before the casting of Douglas.
  • Jessica Chastain was originally offered the role of Hope Van Dyne before Evangeline Lilly was cast, but turned it down due to Creative Differences over the script and scheduling conflicts. Chastain would later play Vuk in Dark Phoenix.
    • Rashida Jones, Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone were also considered for the part of Hope Van Dyne before the casting of Lilly. Howard and Stone previously portrayed Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man Trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man Series respectively.
  • Patrick Wilson and Jordan Peele were initially cast as Paxton and a member of Scott's gang, but dropped out of the project due to scheduling commitments and the departure of Edgar Wright.
  • Adam McKay, Ruben Fleischer, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Nicholas Stoller, Michael Dowse and David Wain were considered as replacements to direct the film before Peyton Reed was hired. McKay would eventually go on to write the screenplay, while Fleischer went on to helm Venom set within Sony's Spider-Man Universe.
  • Rick Moranis was offered a cameo in which Scott, while wearing the suit for the first time, falls into his bowl of Cheerios.
  • The film was originally going to be the beginning of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was eventually changed to become the finale of Phase Two, which is surprising considering that it's directly following an Avengers movie. In the grand scheme of things, this is a relatively minor change.
  • In Edgar Wright's drafts, Darren Cross' (who back then was called Greydon Clark) alter ego would have been Nano Warrior, instead of Yellowjacket. The drafts also featured a car chase sequence.
  • Originally the film was meant to focus on Hank Pym. However, the filmmakers deemed Pym as having a too family-unfriendly history, so it was then decided to focus on Scott Lang, with Pym becoming a mentor and supporting character.
  • According to Evangeline Lilly is that Hope's role was much smaller in Wright's drafts. It was beefed up significantly during rewrites, with Lilly providing some ideas and input.
  • Wright's drafts did not include the Wasp, save for a mention from Pym. Presumably, The Stinger idea with Hope becoming the new Wasp wasn't there either.
  • Scott's brief work at Baskin-Robbins was originally going to be at Chipotle, but the company didn't like their negative portrayal. The filmmakers considered Jamba Juice, then settled on Baskin-Robbins after realizing that the bright colors would be a funny contrast to the dark prison opening.
  • The ending was supposed to have a showdown between Ant-Man and Carson, with Ant-Man defeating him and reclaiming the stolen sample of Pym Particles. The ending was changed to Carson escaping and presumably delivering the sample to HYDRA in order to set up future sequels.
  • Original plans called for the movie to have a 2.40:1 aspect ratio, which would have made the picture look as wide as all of Marvel Studios' other movies save The Avengers. However, Peyton Reed decided that the 1.78:1/1.85:1 aspect ratio of The Avengers would provide more vertical area, for the shrinking scenes.
  • Concept art revealed that Arnim Zola was set to appear with Toby Jones reprising the role but the appearance was scrapped.
  • The Wasp was originally going to wear less silver than the final product, and she wouldn't have had the triangular arch on the top of the costume.
  • There were two alternate fates suggested for Darren Cross at the end of the film; one where he's arrested by the authorities, and one where he was liquified in the same way he disposed of his corporate enemies. Ultimately, him shrinking and deforming into nothingness was used in order to leave the door open for future appearances...which ultimately would be taken advantage of in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
• Written by Cast Member: Paul Rudd worked on rewrites with Adam McKay. Michael Peña and Evangeline Lilly have said in interviews that many of the actors were consulted on their characters during the rewrite, which resulted in expanded roles.
• Word of God:
  • Years after the movie came out, director Peyton Reed stated that Darren Cross may not have actually died when Scott seemingly imploded him. He suggests it's possible that he could be trapped in the Quantum Realm. Presumably, this is to leave the door open for some kind of return if they so choose. Though, it's not like this fate is any better.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would later confirm that he indeed survived his apparent death in this film.
  • On his Twitter, Peyton Reed also stated that when we see Sam talking to someone on his communicator (asking that Steve not learn about his battle with Scott), he is talking to Natasha.
• Word of Saint Paul: When asked by a fan on Twitter, David Dastmalchian claimed that Kurt's last name is Goreshter, which is in reference to an acting friend of his who has the same last name.
• Working Title: BigFoot.
• You Sound Familiar:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Hank Pym is voiced by José Luis Orozco, who dubbed Obadiah Stane back in Iron Man.
  • Coincidentally, the European French dub did something similar given that both characters were voiced by the late Patrick Floersheim.

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