History Trivia / AntMan

* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer: Just try to count the number of people who misinterpret Hank Pym's infamous slap as a direct and conscious act of DomesticAbuse. Fans in these situations will often point out the vital-to-understand context of this scene, that Hank was not in his right mind and the artist deliberately misinterpreted the intentions of the writer for it to clearly look accidental, as well as the fact that it only happened ONCE in the main 616 continuity and Hank regrets it to this day, but unfortunately it remains a NeverLiveItDown moment for the character as people use it to paint him as a chronic wife-beater, which isn't helped by his Ultimate Universe counterpart actually being one.

* NamesTheSame: Scott Lang shares his name with a former mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts who blames the murder spree of a Neo-Nazi on video games.

* SimilarlyNamedWorks: The Wasp with [[ComicBook/TheWaspLevGleason the Golden Age hero]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Wasp was featured as a major character in one of the earlier drafts of Creator/JossWhedon's screenplay for ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. She ended up being cut from the film due to there already being too many characters to juggle.
** She was also originally set to be one of the three main characters in the ''Film/AntMan1'' film, but, sadly, that is no longer the case.
** The Hope Van Dyne version of the Wasp was supposed to make her debut in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', but the character was cut from the script due to a variety of factors (such as Creator/EvangelineLilly being heavily pregnant and the filmmakers not wanting her debut to be overshadowed by other characters).

* NamesTheSame: Scott Lang shares his name with a former mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts who blames the murder spree of a Neo-Nazi on video games.

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* AbilityOverAppearance: Creator/PaulRudd 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.
* ActorSharedBackground: Luis is from a family of Mexican immigrants, just like Creator/MichaelPena.
* AwesomeDearBoy: 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, [[Film/AntManAndTheWasp which he did]].
* CreatorBacklash: 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.
* TheDanza: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Luis is voiced by Luis Alfonso Mendoza, who both share the same first name.
* DeletedScene:
** In the 1980s, Hank Pym, steals a microfilm from Castillo. Footage from this sequence appears during the captured Ant-Man footage displayed by Darren Cross before he presents the Yellowjacket Suit, as well as on a deleted scene where Hank Pym explains the history of Ant-Man to Scott Lang.
** Hank stores the Ant-Man Suit in his vault after he resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D.
** Prior to presenting the Yellowjacket Suit to potential buyers, Darren Cross shows them shrunken-down structures such as a cube of shipping containers and a waste dump, as well as a biotech-generated eye. One of the buyers is shown to be a member of the Ten Rings, their emblem tattooed on his neck.
** Darren Cross says that he is the future of war during his presentation of the Yellowjacket Suit.
** At Cassie Lang's birthday party, Scott Lang visits her on the couch. She asks if he could visit her more, and he says that it is complicated. They both say that they will miss each other and Scott says "I Love You" in the voice of the toy rabbit that he gave her. She laughs and he tells her that she is not supposed to laugh; Jim Paxton comes in, coughing a signal for him to leave.
** Scott pretends to fix Hank's cable so as to disable his cameras in order to break into his house undetected. While fixing the cable, Pym drops some major hints that he set up the break-in, and Lang also sees a photo of Pym in the military and the tank key chain.
** When trying on the Ant-Man Suit, Scott tries many poses in the shower such as one of [[Franchise/StarWars C-3PO]].
** After landing on the taxi, Scott Lang tries to steal a diamond from a pawn shop, only to be completely mauled by carpenter ants. After this experience, Lang decides he has had enough of being the size of an insect and returns the tech to the Pym Residence.
** Hank shows Scott more back story on Ant-Man including footage of one of his early missions and details on Darren Cross and Mitchell Carson.
** Hank says that Darren Cross and the government with him are at the top of their game with regards to the Yellowjacket Suit.
** Scott asks if they can change the name of his the superhero mantle "Ant-Man", to which Hank Pym says that they cannot. Lang admits that the idea sounded ridiculous after he said it. (Note: this scene is shown in trailers)
** Hank and Hope discuss Scott and that he must be savant with his use of technology, hence why Pym was so eager to get him to be the Ant-Man.
** Hope tells Scott that he must learn to harness the power of the Ant-Man Suit.
** Hope says that they "are all in this for reasons bigger than any one of us" with regards to the Infiltration into Pym Technologies Headquarters heist.
** When encountering Falcon, Ant-Man proclaims that Iron Man was already taken as a possible name. He also makes a comment on saving the world, telling Falcon "you know how that is".
** Luis enthusiastically yells "Kool bro!" when seeing Scott Lang show off his powers for the first time. Lang says, "Good, right?"
** Hope scuffs away from her coffee cup and sarcastically asks what could possibly go wrong with regards to their final Infiltration into Pym Technologies Headquarters plans.
** Luis whistles a different tune during his role as a security guard in the Infiltration into Pym Technologies Headquarters.
** In an alternate extension of the Infiltration into Pym Technologies Headquarters scene, Mitchell Carson is shown on the ground outside of Pym Technologies having escaped with the Cross Particles, but dies when he gets sucked into the building’s implosion.
** Scott says that it was "a lot scarier a second ago" during the Duel at Maggie Lang's House.
** Scott uses his Ant-Man Suit and fellow ants to help himself, Luis, and Dave earn wish-fulfilling riches from casinos.
** As a post-credits scene, Scott Lang apprehends HYDRA operative Mitchell Carson and retrieves the Pym Particles created by Darren Cross. This was replaced with a scene from ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.
* DevelopmentHell:
** 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.
* DoingItForTheArt: For a lot of the scenes where Scott is shrunk down, the background plates are actually "macro sets" painstakingly constructed down to the last detail and shot with miniature [=4K=] cameras with the only artificial element added in post being Scott himself.
* DuelingWorks: With ''Film/FantasticFour2015''. To say ''Ant-Man'' [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] ''Fantastic Four'' would be a severe understatement--FF turned out to be the most critically-lambasted superhero movie since ''Film/{{Elektra}}'' and ''Film/{{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.
* DVDCommentary: The Blu-Ray has an audio commentary by Peyton Reed and Paul Rudd, Marvel Studios' first movie commentary to include the lead actor.
* DyeingForYourArt: 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 Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse 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).
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** 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 ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' led Marvel Studios to be reconfigured by Disney into a separate entity from Marvel Entertainment.
* ExiledFromContinuity: 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 ''Film/TheAvengers2012''. 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.
* FakeAmerican: Canadian Creator/EvangelineLilly as Hope van Dyne.
* FanNickname:
** Both the character and the sub-franchise in general sometimes get nicknamed [[CapsLock ANTS]] for short, after a [[MemeticMutation memetically]] popular [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyGwMqMCta4 promotional]] video for the movie.
** Luis's ability to knock out anyone in one hit has led to him being called [[Webcomic/OnePunchMan Juan Punch Man]].
** Luis, Dave and Kurt are collectively referred to as "the Three Wombats" after Hank's derisive name for them.
* IAmNotLeonardNimoy: Many refer to Dave as "T.I.", since he's primarily known as a rapper instead of an actor.
* IKnewIt:
** Just about everyone knew that [[spoiler:Hope will become the next Wasp]].
** To a lesser extent, the fact that [[spoiler:Janet van Dyne is trapped in the Microverse]].
** Hands up, how many people really didn't guess that [[spoiler:Cross would try to sell the Yellowjacket suit to HYDRA]]?
* LifeImitatesArt: The Georgia State Archives building, which doubled as the Pym Technologies building, was [[http://www.ajc.com/news/watch-old-georgia-archives-building-imploded/tCNjYjxwzYc1GozLtywLrI/ imploded for real on March 5, 2017]].
* PromotedFanboy:
** 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 of Astonish'' #27 (Hank Pym's first appearance) and ''Marvel Premiere'' #47 (Scott Lang's first appearance).
** For Peyton Reed, see Awesome, Dear Boy above.
* PlayingAgainstType:
** 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 ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' (before Tim Story) and was close to directing ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''. Some of his most notable work prior to this was ''Series/TheWeirdAlShow''.
** Comedy veteran Creator/PaulRudd and heavy drama veteran Creator/MichaelDouglas in a superhero movie.
** Creator/MichaelPena is mainly known for dramatic roles, but plays a more comedic character here.
* QuoteSource: This film provides the page quote for:
** AtrociousAlias
** ToMakeALongStoryShort
* ShowAccuracyToyAccuracy: A number of the toys (including the Marvel Legends figure from Creator/{{Hasbro}}) mistakenly depicted Ant-Man's helmet with an open mouth, much like how it's depicted in the comics. This creates some FridgeLogic 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.
* SoMyKidsCanWatch: Michael Douglas's 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.
* StarMakingRole: Although Creator/PaulRudd 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.
* ThrowItIn:
** ComicBook/TheFalcon's role in the plot came about after Adam [=McKay=] and Paul Rudd went to see ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier'' 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, TheStinger 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 ContinuityNod. "I know a guy" also served as the perfect IronicEcho.
* TrollingCreator: 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.
* TroubledProduction: If only the pre-production is counted, the movie was locked in DevelopmentHell for the longest time and just as it looked as if the film was ''finally'' going to move into principal photography, Creator/EdgarWright 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).
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/MarvelCinematicUniverse Enough for its own page]]
* WrittenByCastMember: Creator/PaulRudd 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.
* WordOfGod: Years after the movie came out, director Payton Reed stated that Darren Cross [[UncertainDoom may not have actually died]] when Scott seemingly imploded him. He suggests it's possible that he could be [[TrappedInAnotherWorld trapped]] in the [[AcidTripDimension Quantum Realm]]. Presumably, this is to leave the door open for some kind of return if they so choose. Though, [[FateWorseThanDeath it's not like this fate is any better]].
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/JosephGordonLevitt met with Creator/MarvelStudios for the role of [[Comicbook/AntMan Scott Lang]] before Creator/PaulRudd was cast. Gordon-Levitt was previously approached for [[Comicbook/StarLord Peter Quill]] in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy''.
*** Creator/EwanMcGregor, Creator/AdrienBrody, and Creator/SimonPegg were also considered for the part of Scott Lang before the casting of Rudd. [=McGregor=] was later considered for [[Comicbook/DoctorStrange Stephen Strange]] in ''Film/DoctorStrange2016''.
** Creator/SteveBuscemi was the first choice for the role of [[Comicbook/AntMan Hank Pym]] before the casting of Creator/MichaelDouglas, but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts with ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania2''.
*** Creator/PierceBrosnan, Creator/GaryOldman, and Creator/SeanBean were considered to portray Hank Pym as well before the casting of Douglas.
** Creator/JessicaChastain was originally offered the part of [[ComicBook/TheWasp Hope Van Dyne]] before Creator/EvangelineLilly was cast, but turned it down due to CreativeDifferences over the script and character portrayal.
*** Creator/EmmaStone, Creator/RashidaJones, and Creator/BryceDallasHoward were also considered for Hope Van Dyne before the casting of Lilly.
** Creator/PatrickWilson and Creator/JordanPeele 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 Creator/EdgarWright.
** [[Film/AnchormanTheLegendofRonBurgundy Adam [=McKay=]]], Creator/RubenFleischer, [[Film/DodgeBallATrueUnderdogStory Rawson Marshall Thurber]], [[Film/ForgettingSarahMarshall Nicholas Stoller]], [[Film/TheFWord Michael Dowse]], and [[Film/WetHotAmericanSummer David Wain]] were considered as replacements to direct the film before Creator/PeytonReed was hired. [=McKay=] would eventually go on to write the screenplay, while Fleischer went on to direct [[Film/Venom2018 a different comic book movie]].
** 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's (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.
** WordOfGod from 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. [[spoiler: Presumably, TheStinger 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 [[spoiler: Carson]], with Ant-Man defeating him and reclaiming the stolen [[spoiler: sample of Pym Particles]]. The ending was changed to [[spoiler: Carson]] escaping and presumably delivering the sample to [[spoiler: 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 ''Film/{{The Avengers| 2012}}''. 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.
** Arnim Zola was originally appeared in this film as a robot but he was cut from the movie when the script get rewritten. There's a concept art of him.
** If Edgar Wright hasn't left the film, his vision of Ant-Man would resemble ''Film/Batman1989'', ''Film/SpiderMan1'' and Edgar Wright's other movies rather than a typical MCU movie.

*** Creator/EwanMcGregor, Creator/AdrienBrody, and Creator/SimonPegg were also considered for the part of Scott Lang before the casting of Rudd.

** When Creator/EdgarWright departed the film, [[Film/AnchormanTheLegendofRonBurgundy Adam [=McKay=]]], Creator/RubenFleischer, [[Film/DodgeBallATrueUnderdogStory Rawson Marshall Thurber]], [[Film/ForgettingSarahMarshall Nicholas Stoller]], [[Film/TheFWord Michael Dowse]], and [[Film/WetHotAmericanSummer David Wain]] were considered as replacements to direct the movie before Creator/PeytonReed was hired. [=McKay=] would eventually go on to write the screenplay while Fleischer went on to direct [[Film/Venom2018 a different comic book film]].