Credit: Marvel StudiosOne of the stars of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) has shared more details about what went down behind the scenes of one Marvel’s worst films.
Actress Katy O’Brian – who had a small part as Jentorra in the Ant-Man threequel – recently spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her time on set, which she revealed was far from easygoing and instead relied on constant rewrites and the haphazard addition of new scenes.
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“That was absolutely chaotic,” she revealed, laughing. “I think we were getting new pages until the last day, and I think I was getting new fights the last day. I just show up, and they’re like, here’s a new fight.”
While O’Brian was complimentary about her time on the Marvel set (“I thought me being this kind of like newbie, they might, I don’t know, either ignore me or I would just feel out of place, but they just always made it as welcoming as possible. I was surprised by that environment”), the experience dimmed in comparison to her time on the set of The Mandalorian, which she described as “pretty seamless.”
Multiple factors are cited as the reasons for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s financial and critical failure. One of the biggest was the script, with critics accusing it of being “narratively aimless” and “drenched in a goop of CGI characters.” As The Ringer so neatly put it, “The supposedly limitless storytelling device has been pushed to its narrative limits. Just look to Quantumania for proof.”
Reports later emerged that Paul Rudd (Scott Lang), Evangeline Lily (Hope Van Dyne), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), and co. reshot the film’s ending just weeks before its theatrical release, changing the conclusion so Ant-Man managed to escape the Quantum Realm (when the opposite was originally planned) and Kang was (seemingly) defeated.
Related: Marvel’s Worst Film Just Broke an Embarrassing Record
A recurring issue for Marvel over the past few years is its focus on quantity over quality. With a significant uptick in the number of films and TV shows pushed out since Avengers: Endgame (2019), the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s narrative has become increasingly muddled – and even those behind its stories don’t seem to know where things are going.
The good news is that this (hopefully) is a thing of the past. As everyone from Disney CEO Bob Iger to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has promised over the past few months, the studio is locking down its creative vision, stepping back from several projects to regain its focus and get back on track – which, theoretically, should mean that the next script is actually complete before a film hits production. Fingers crossed.
What were your thoughts on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)? Let us know in the comments!