Marvel Studios: Assembled (2021–…): Season 2, Episode 1 - The Making of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania - full transcript

Where are we?

We always loved doing the
unexpected with Scott Lang.

He is arguably the character
that is the most underestimated.

I think
back to making the first film,

which was one of the titles
that, when we announced,

people kind of looked at us
strangely, like, "Really, Ant-Man?

"You're going to make a movie
about that? Are you kidding?"

We had no idea.

"Is Ant-Man going to work? Are
people going to come see it?"

We were fortunate that I think audiences
really latched on to Scott Lang,

and I think they did for
the same reasons I did.



Daddy!

You can't just show up.

I wanna to be
a part of her life.

He is not a super
scientist or a billionaire.

He's just a regular guy who
sort of happened upon this suit

and this technology and got sucked
into this insane Marvel Universe.

When we first started with
Ant-Man, we were a palate cleanser.

Because we were always coming
after the kind of finale-big

Marvel story, the Avengers story
that was ripping people's hearts out.

And ours were light and they
were fun and they were sweet.

But at one point, Ant-Man became the
key to saving a literal universe...

What if we could enter
the Quantum Realm?

in Avengers: Endgame.

And that is not something I
think people would have predicted



after his first appearance.

So carrying that
tradition, we thought,

"What do we do with
another Ant-Man movie?"

And that's really when we hit
upon, "Let's use this film

"to kick off Phase Five."

The film that kicks
off Phase Five

is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

One of the things
that was really exciting was

knowing that what we were doing

was probably going to
surprise some people.

Like, "Wow. I can't believe
this is an Ant-Man movie."

Cut it!

Dad!

"Word of advice.

"Look out for the little guy."

Ready? Kang walks in.

Ready.

So you see him.

And then... And
then, I blow it up.

Camera is not going
to see Kang at all before.

But we're gonna see Paul,

we're gonna see Scott's
expression not knowing what it is.

- He pushes her in.
- Oh.

Then he gets blasted away.

Then we reveal Kang.

Oh!

I always knew it would be
great to build to a movie like this.

As a kid, I was a big Fantastic
Four fan and Avengers fan,

and I remember stories

where Doctor Doom would
shrink down and you'd realize,

"Oh, there are whole
civilizations deep down there."

They're worlds within
worlds, and it's populated.

And wouldn't it be great to be
able to get to that at some point?

From that were the early seeds
for what Quantumania could be.

This was all sort of
established in the second film...

Mom?

where Janet is
rescued from the Quantum Realm.

We hint at what the
Quantum Realm could be,

we hint that there's maybe more than
just a lifeless void down there.

There's even some Easter eggs
if you go back and slow down

the second film, where you see
what looks like subatomic cities.

It's me.

And she's wearing clothes,
that, "Where did these clothes come from?"

Somewhere in the
back of our mind,

we knew if we ever were lucky
enough to get to a Part 3,

the seeds for that idea,

the seeds for going from small
San Francisco crime movies

to a sci-fi epic that has more in common
with Lord of the Rings or Star Wars,

that was the starting
place for Quantumania.

But we were very conscious of this
film feeling like its own thing.

And we spent a year
concepting this film.

It's the longest run of concept time
that I've ever had on a film at Marvel.

The way this hood is hanging
over, that's pretty cool there.

Because you can just barely see the eyes,
so that then when there's the reveal...

Before we release...

One of my big influences on
this was just going through

old '60s and '70s and '80s
science fiction paperbacks

and looking at the covers.

And they were all about just
creating these whacked-out worlds.

But also, I think you can't do a movie
like this without looking at Moebius.

Things like Flash Gordon.

So literally, we had
everything on the table.

The best thing about

doing a sequel

is the opportunity to work with
the people you worked with before.

So there's a familiarity.

You don't have to go in like strangers
and kind of feel your way out.

When you're lucky enough to get to
tell a third film in your series,

it means that you've been together with
some of these cast members for years,

and with that comes a lot of trust
about the kind of story you're telling.

It's anchored by
these amazing actors,

you know, and the choices we made
going back to that first film.

And you look at actors like
Evangeline Lilly, Paul Rudd,

Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer,
who joined in the second film.

These are heavyweight talents.

These are absolute
world-class actors,

which help sell the
craziness of this world.

- Show us!
- Show us!

You're
going to love it.

We'll see about that.

Scott Lang, he's
had a lot to digest.

We start this film. The events
of Endgame have happened.

And now, I think that, for
the first time in many years,

Scott is able to take a
breath and kind of sit back

and spend some time
with his daughter

and enjoy just being
present in his own life.

But that doesn't last
that long, that peace.

Dad!

Scott is
just a dad who realizes

that he's accidentally
brought his daughter

into this world with him now.

And now he sees, like, "Oh,
man, I can't really play this

"as loose as I usually do.

"I got to keep my
daughter safe."

And so I really tried to
lean into the likeability

and the everyman
charm of Paul Rudd.

On top of that, he can deliver any
joke and make it ten times better

just by saying it.

Hmm.

It's like we're camping.
We love camping.

We've
never been camping.

But we've always
talked about it.

He is just endlessly coming up with
different ways to come at a scene.

You know, we work very
hard on the screenplay and,

and get it where we want
it, and we shoot that.

But we always mix it up and,
you know, nine times out of ten,

Paul's going to figure out a better,
funnier way to tell that story.

Your Nobel Prize is in the mail.

It better be. I just
saved eight bucks.

God, I admire you.

Thank you.

It was really fun
to play Evangeline Lilly

as, like, the
straight-edge, high status,

highly capable, highly
efficient person.

She really surprised me with
her just dead-on deliveries.

She's been, uh, really
great in this movie.

No pizza in the Quantum Realm?

No. No anything.

You know, Mom, you can
talk about it. If you want.

I'll be honest and tell you
it's been really difficult.

Because I...

Every time I revisit Hope, every
time I come back for a new film,

I realize I have
to reinvent her,

I have to figure
out who she is now,

what that looks like
and how to make sure

that it doesn't look like a
completely different person,

like that there's a through
line that you still see Hope

and you feel her.

I think maybe a little
bit of a drift in, right?

- There's a whole thing I can see.
- Yeah, there's a force field

that goes all the way
around this thing, right?

- Okay.
- So taking that in,

a little bit of a, a move in,

and then I'll cue you for, um...

You've got to do something. That's
where you dig for the thing.

I used to jokingly talk
about the first film,

like she was just always in a bad
mood and kind of had attitude.

Okay, we can try this and when
he fails, I'll do it myself.

But by the second film already,
I felt like I had to drop that,

because she was in
a much better place.

So, each film, I'm like, "Wait,
who is she and how do I play that?

"And how do I make sure
that it's still Hope?"

And it's been a challenge, but
a challenge that I welcome.

- Awesome.
- If only Cap could see you now.

In Ant-Man and the Wasp,

Hope brought her mother
back from the Quantum Realm,

and was very, very excited.

I think she might have
had little girl fantasies

about what that
reunion would be like.

Mommy and I will tell
each other everything.

We'll be best of friends.

I missed you so much.

I missed you too, jellybean.

What we don't see between
the last film and this one

is that she wasn't so open.

She wasn't so intimate.
She wasn't so vulnerable.

Do not move.

There was a closed-off part of
her that Hope couldn't reach

and it hurts.

Hope and Janet, working through
the gaps in their relationship.

So, you've been studying
the Quantum Realm?

- Mm-hmm.
- Why didn't you ask me about it?

I tried, Mom.

A lot.

You never wanted
to talk about it.

Michelle and I were really passionate
about that part of the story.

And we spent a lot of time
making that really honest.

We didn't want it glossed over.

We didn't want their
tension to be cute.

You said there was
nothing down here.

Why didn't you
tell us about this?

I will explain everything,
but right now...

- I need you to trust me.
- Then make me trust you!

I started to get really
excited about the movie

once we talked about Janet.

Janet, what
is he talking about?

This is Janet's
history of violence coming back.

This is Michelle
Pfeiffer's Unforgiven.

How many worlds will die

if you get out?

Not yours.

This is that movie
with a legendary movie star,

and it's her past coming
back to destroy her family.

And Michelle brought so much
pathos and guilt to this character.

I couldn't beat him.
He was too powerful.

What did you do?

This is the first film
where I think we really get to know Janet.

I do think she struggles with
feeling like an outsider.

It's interesting. On the previous film,
I just wasn't there for that long.

And, cut! Yeah. Great.

I think I sort
of maybe left the last one

feeling still a little
bit of an outsider,

because my visit was so brief.

Let's go home.

But this one, we were really
in the trenches together

for a very long time.

I even said to Michael one day,
I turned to him and I said,

"I'm just so happy that I got
to know you on this film."

It's watching and
learning from each other.

And, you know,
Michael is hysterical,

no matter what you
give him to say.

I love ants.

I love ants.

There's just
a fun factor to it,

to get into this other world,
you know, the Quantum Realm.

And "anything goes" is a trip.

What I discovered about
Michael Douglas in these movies

is how funny he is.

You read my book?

Every goddamn word.

I think the general
audience thinks of Michael

in, you know, sexy thrillers,

and his great commanding voice, and
he's an incredible dramatic actor.

But his comedic
chops are fantastic.

She had some questions, okay?

I can't help if people
are inspired by me.

He really is Hollywood royalty.

So to get him as Hank Pym in
that first movie was exciting.

40 years ago, I created a formula
that altered atomic relative distance.

What does that mean?

I learned how to change
the distance between atoms.

And to build this character of
Hank, who is a mentor character to Scott.

But he's kind of a
bent mentor, right?

Hank, I'm a thief. I'm a good
thief, but this is insane.

There's some morally gray
areas, uh, about Hank,

and he can be a bit
of a curmudgeon.

But I love Michael's energy
in a big way in this movie.

I would've just broken
you out with ants.

All right, you know what? Family
meeting. Can we have a family meeting?

Isn't that what we're doing?

Yeah, I mean about this.

About everybody being
so fine with this.

Here we go.

We had discussions about who the
villain of this movie was going to be,

and we loved the idea of pitting
Ant-Man against a major Marvel villain.

You're an interesting man...

Scott Lang.

Kang the Conqueror came to mind

because I was a fan of Kang's
since I was a kid, in the comics.

That excited us,
to take the Avenger

who might be perceived as
certainly the tiniest Avenger,

and putting him up against this
powerful, powerful multiversal villain.

You're an Avenger?

Have I killed you before?

What?

They all blur together
after a while.

Audiences have seen a version of
this character in the series Loki.

This is wild.

He Who Remains.

It's a very different character.
It's just a variation.

He Who Remains
is kind of squirrelly guy

who hides away at
the end of time,

and this is the
guy he's afraid of.

This is Kang the Conqueror.

This is the version that every other
version of him is terrified of,

so terrified that they had to ambush him
and banish him down to the Quantum Realm.

What is this place?

Once I get out of here,

I can take any universe I want.

The Ant-Man franchise, within
the MCU, has a very clear ethos

has a very clear rhythm to it.

I had the benefit of stepping into
a song that was already playing.

Today we conquer eternity.

The Marvel movies, I think, are
at their best when you have a villain

that is a really
compelling character.

A villain who has a
very clear agenda...

Just be glad I need you.

A villain who
also has this side

that you kind of relate to their
point of view despite yourself.

We wanted Kang to really,
really embody that.

We're going to get out of here.

She's gonna
open the door...

and you'll be there.

When it
came to the costume,

Kang is very much this
futuristic character.

He's very foreign in a lot of ways
to our culture and to our world.

So he has a very different,
very sleek, futuristic appeal.

That's what conquerors do.

They burn the broken world.

And they make a new one.

It's always a challenge
when you're bringing

a Marvel Comics character
from a two-dimensional page

into a living, breathing
person in a movie.

Because a lot of those designs,
almost all of them were,

you know, originated
in the '60s.

But we looked at all the panels and
we really embraced these things,

and how can we do the sort of
21st-century version of that thing?

Taking visual cues from the comics
and, and making them feel real.

This was probably

the most difficult costume
on the film to make.

The concept was drawn in a way that
you couldn't tell what the fabric was,

whether it's hard or soft,
so we had to experiment.

I think this is the third version
of how we solved the problem.

What Peyton was really
keen on was the lines of this...

It was this line.

- Yeah.
- Comic book accurate.

So he wanted the size of that collar.
He wanted these lines flowing down.

And although we had that, they had to
be broken up to allow for more movement.

Starting out, they brought the
costume completely into the trailer.

And I did take a moment.

And then once I put it on,
I went, "Mmm, this is it."

You know, like, there are very few moments
in my life where you go, "This is it."

There is a
energy within the suit.

It makes you stand up straight.

You know, that's
just how it's built.

There's mysticism about
it, you know. It's iconic.

I think one of the hardest
things in this film

from a design point of view
was to find that balance

of a certain amount of
familiarity about things,

but not be exactly
what you think it is.

One of the things that I
looked at quite early on were

natural photography
and electron microscopy

and just trying to find
colors and textures

to help take it from it
just being this sort of

hard surface,
technological world

to having this slightly
more organic feeling to it.

And that's quite a tricky
thing, to strike that balance.

I just started with some
initial sort of sketches,

put together a bunch of reference
boards and materials for Peyton,

just to create the
whole vibe of the world.

Look up. Spin.

It's coming in, it's
coming in, it's coming in.

And, bang!

Look at him. Pry him off.

This world that they've
created was, um, pretty spectacular.

We worked with this
relatively new technology,

The Volume, where
they actually project,

in 3D, all around
you on the stage.

So you are really there and
you're not having to pretend.

This changes everything
we know about life,

about evolution, our
place in the galaxy...

Holy shit!

That guy looks like broccoli.

When using The Volume,

from a design point of view,
you have to start early...

All right, everybody.
We're gonna get started now.

to feed the process.

It's a little bit like bringing
postproduction up front

and bringing preproduction, production
and postproduction all together.

So that you can actually,
in effect, shoot on it.

Give us as much in camera as we
can, really make it feel real.

Not only that, we had these
incredibly imaginative,

otherworldly characters,

and the costumes and
the makeup design.

You really felt like
you were entering

this sort of strange and
frightening and magical universe.

Once we get into our...

Michael and Evangeline are here.

Rock guy in the background.

Right, guys? So I imagine
that we can use him here.

You'll be able to get
him in the foreground,

like floating pieces of rock
right in the foreground.

This, I think would be great.

The biggest challenges on this
film is inventing every look

and every idea
from the ground up.

And at every angle,
we've asked ourselves,

'What's the Quantum
Realm version of this?

"What's the Quantum
Realm version of aliens?"

We call them aliens because
that's the term we're used to,

it's the shorthand
we're used to.

But essentially, it's not.

It's a whole different world
and a whole different way

of looking at species and life.

We
needed to go quite extreme.

Nothing should be like
it is in our world.

It should be an ephemeral
sort of universe.

We were getting
some very unusual designs.

This guy is Pixel Man,
he was a great favorite.

The idea of him is
that he looks like

a collection of pixels
floating in the space

that are kind of concentrated
and become the body of a human.

We had a lovely guy
called Kintsugi Man.

This lovely gentleman here
actually was one of our stuntmen.

So we knew he was going
to have to perform stunts.

So I wanted a fairly
robust makeup.

I mean, obviously, he couldn't
have anything as delicate as those.

We completely covered him,
and he had prosthetic pieces.

You can see these
are all built up

to give him this sort
of slightly broken look.

We also had a lovely chap
we called Ribbon Man,

because I wanted it to look
like his face was unraveling.

So we drew, like, a
bandaged effect on his face.

And then we had these
ribbons coming off,

but we had the inside
of the ribbon dark blue,

which, if you looked at
the back of his skull,

looked like it was the
inside of his head.

Some of the things you really
couldn't physically make them.

To actually sculpt them with your
hands would be very difficult.

So I just exploited 3D
printing like crazy.

That was the first for me, to actually
do a 3D-printed mold and produce pieces

that were to merge
with the skin.

There are moments when you are
reading the script, and you go,

"I just struggle to understand
what that is as a concept."

And then you kind of get into it
and you start spitballing ideas,

and artworking up stuff.

And then it tends to
have a life of its own.

Good example of that would be
the controls for Krylar's yacht.

Where are the controls?

Those are the controls.

What the hell?

Initially, it
was called a dielectric gel,

and it's used for waterproofing
electrical components.

It's a very sticky,
mucusy jelly,

and it's not really
of any use to us.

But I started mixing it
with another material,

and I was able to harden it
and change the properties of it

to make it much more
useful as a prosthetic.

And let's start that up!

Sometimes you just have
to take a risk and experiment,

and I think we got a
great physical result.

And I've got to say, Michael Douglas
was an absolute professional.

- Hello.
- Whoa!

Hi. Hi.

Did you drink the ooze?

- Why can I understand you?
- Oh.

Great. That's the ooze.

Hey, everybody, It
worked! Ooze worked!

Veb, he's just this blob with
these weird, creepy arms.

Hi. I am Veb. You just drank me.

I did... What?

This is amazing,
because it's so weird.

We knew we needed someone to inhabit
it in ways where would come to life,

even though it's a
fully CG character.

You wanted to feel personality
and feel the performance of that.

I have holes.

Very early on, we hit upon
the idea of inviting David Dastmalchian

back to the Ant-Man franchise

to play a completely different
character than he had played

in the first two films.

Oh, that's Kurt. He was
at Folsom for five years.

He's a wizard on that laptop.

- Nice meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.

When Peyton told me about the role, I'd
never done anything like this before.

What would this look like?
How would they involve me?

Was I just going to get to go to a
booth at some point and give my voice?

To me, what I wanted

was the opportunity to,
like, be there on set.

A big hole.

How many holes do you have?

I'm sorry. Is that
a personal question?

I don't have any holes.

When I stepped
foot for the very first time

on the set of the Quantum Realm,

it was like all my childhood dreams
of making movies coming to life.

There was so much practical
set building happening there,

and then all the
magnificent imagination.

We got to make sort of
like a Marvel Wizard of Oz

which I felt was, like,
"What an insane opportunity."

You can read minds?

Yeah, and I really
wish I couldn't.

Everyone is disgusting.

- Could you please stop thinking that?
- Sorry.

I had so much fun because I got
to write a corner of the Marvel Universe

that basically felt
like fresh territory.

You guys will take off
your hoods... You let go of him,

take off your hoods, and
reveal that you're fuzzy,

cute little owl creatures.

We got to populate
it with so many creatures,

and they built subcultures
and they built languages.

It's just incredible.

Every second you see on camera
had so much thought behind it,

whereas I'm sitting here on camera
and I was like, "Well, you know,

"there's a broccoli
guy, He's drunk.

"He speaks the
broccoli language."

So, what's your story then?

Move.

It's time. Follow me.

We just tried
to make this as heightened

and as colorful and as
vibrant as possible.

At the same time, you had no rules, but
you also had to make your own rules.

And luckily, those rules could be, you
know, whatever you wanted them to be.

Step out,
please. Glasses on.

Yes! Yes!

All right, and back it up.

- What do we do with our hands?
- Back it up.

- Superhero stuff.
- Superhero stuff.

Oh, look at that!
She's a natural.

One of our philosophies
that we've always applied

is to just go back to character
and to root it in character.

And the science fiction and
the world building is fun.

Dad!

But, ultimately,
it's window dressing

to this story about a father
and his daughter reconnecting.

Dad!

As far as having Kathryn
now play Cassie as a young adult,

it was great because it's life.

It's much different dealing
with a 6-year-old...

Mommy's so happy you're here,
she choked on her drink.

than it is
somebody who's 18.

Cassie. What happened?

Jail stuff.

And so, I think the thing that
was fun was watching Kathryn

kind of take on Cassie

and play a character who wants to
find her own way, discover who she is,

and maybe butt heads with
her dad a little bit.

Okay. I have a suit.

Yeah, I noticed.

Oh, man. When I read the
script for the first time,

the thing I was the most stoked
on was Cassie's character.

Yeah. One more.

- Look there.
- Okay.

For about, I don't know,

five years now,

I've been pestering Marvel Studios
about their female characters.

Saying, like, "We're
all very competent.

"We're all very kickass.

"We're all very serious,

"very responsible
women who make sure

"that we keep the boys in line
and we do everything perfectly.

"And when I look around
at the women in my life,

"there are so many other
colors to the female

"that I would like to
see in your movies."

And then I read the script
and Cassie is just...

She's like, zany and brazen

and kind of, like, irresponsible
in a fantastically, um, pure way.

And Kathryn killed it.

Please
let this work.

Yeah!

It worked!

Look at me.

I'm such a dick.

It's never too late
to stop being a dick.

Okay?

Audiences who have a
relationship with young Cassie,

Abby Ryder Fortson, who played her
in the first two Ant-Man movies.

I feel like they want to know

that the daughter of Scott
Lang grows up to be funny.

And grows up to be a bright, optimistic
person in the way that Scott Lang is.

That was really, really
crucial for this movie.

And I'd seen Kathryn in a screen test
that she had done for another Marvel role.

- Director Fury sent you.
- Wow. Who?

He knows where I live.

- Oh. Oh.
- Fury.

You mean Mr. Good Eye.

- No.
- Yeah, he loved you.

Like I said, I was on
a rooftop at Third...

There's more
cookies. Oh, my God.

It's like, wow, she has this
brightness to her. She's funny.

She has this youthful
optimism about her.

And she has the physicality.

She's an athlete. So I
really wanted someone

who could do all the physical
demands that that role required.

And Kathryn was just terrific.

For a lot of the movie,
our heroes are split up.

And Scott and Cassie are
on one side of the story.

So I needed someone who could
really, really hang with Scott

because it was important for
the dynamic of the movie.

So I needed an actor in
the role to play Cassie

who could really
spar with Paul Rudd.

This is not our fight.

Just 'cause it's not happening to
you doesn't mean it's not happening.

She's disappointed in you.

- I got that. Yeah. Thank you.
- You're welcome.

Paul is the best.

He was so welcoming.

Boom!

Cut it.

That was too close.

And he told me not to hold back.
Like, on our second day of shooting,

I was just trying
to be invisible.

Back up.

I was like,
"Okay, just don't mess up

- "and then, like, you'll be okay."
- Back up.

- Get back!
- Oh! Oh!

And we had this scene

with Michelle and Michael
and Hope and everybody.

And Peyton was like,
"Okay, now do one for fun."

And I was like, "Okay."
So I started improvising.

And I did,
like, whatever I wanted.

And then afterwards, Paul was
like, "You've got to do that."

He's like, "You don't
want to finish this movie

"and feel like you
held anything back."

He's like, "'Cause that's the worst thing.
And the truth is, You just have to kind of

"throw it all down,
do everything you got

"and just make sure
you didn't hold back."

And so that's what I
took away from Paul,

and I'll take that on
forever, to every project.

That was nice.

The first time I tried
on my Cassie superhero costume

was when it really felt real.

I'll never forget it, because
it fit pretty perfect.

It's a distinct suit.
No other hero has that. Boom!

- No other hero has what?
- No, we were just talking about...

Cassie's suit is very
much inspired by the ant suit,

although Scott doesn't
know it exists.

You have a suit?
Wait, you have a suit?

So she's kind of
taken references from that

and had help making this.

So it's a bit of a
surprise in the film.

The purple is obviously
from the comic book.

And the fun thing in this is
that she's wearing Converse.

- I like where we ended up, man.
- Good job.

Because, as well
as doing Cassie,

we're also working
on Ant-Man and Wasp.

We're working on all
the other characters.

They have to come
along together.

I think if you were doing one,
from a sewing perspective,

it's probably about two weeks'
sewing, but that doesn't include

the backpack and the helmets,
all their extra bits and pieces.

Even though we had a long time to
prep, there was a change in the concept

of what the suits
were during prep.

So originally they were meant
to be Quantum Realm suits,

and then that changed.

We almost had to start again, so
they became less of a kind of team,

and slightly more individual.

For this movie,

we needed a character who sort
of had this backstory with Janet

and it was a role that needed
someone who had a real presence.

Um... And we thought
of Bill Murray.

Janet Van Dyne?

I thought you were dead.

Been a long time, Krylar.

Officially, Lord Krylar now.

I fought like hell against that.

I was intrigued by the idea of
putting Bill Murray in a Marvel movie.

I was obviously a fan of his
movies growing up in the '80s

and watching him on
Saturday Night Live.

But I also knew that,
pre-Saturday Night Live,

Bill Murray had played the Human Torch
in the Fantastic Four radio show in 1975,

and I listened to that as a kid.

So we talked about that.

Bill came on set
the first couple weeks.

He was giving just these micro
notes on joke construction.

"Switch that word with that word
and maybe take a pause right there."

And you're like, "Bill Murray
knows what he's talking about."

We never wanted anyone to
guess who he was playing.

The Internet is full of all these rumors,
and no one knows who is going to be.

We chose someone they would
literally never guess.

We tried to find the deepest
cut Marvel character we could

and we found this random character
from a random Hulk comic book

in the Quantum Realm
called Lord Krylar.

For the costume, you know, I
talked with Stephen and Peyton

about, "Who is he? Do you
want him more military?

"Do you want him more civilian?

"Can we get away with a suit, or
do you want him more bizarre?"

And I think that, um, vis dev went
through a whole load of things

of it being very, very like,
Quantum and weird and fashiony

and strange textures and stuff,

and that became too theatrical.

So we came up with this blue and
cream and gold combo.

Uh, and just tried to
have a bit of fun with it

rather than, um, getting into too
many kind of crazy patterns and stuff.

Bill brings a lot to the table,
and what you don't want to do is

swamp that with a
confusing, complicated look.

In the end, we pulled it all
back and we get one of these guys

that's in the French Riviera,
that has their yacht,

and just added little Quantum
elements like weird bits of beading,

and strange lines
running across the body.

So there's some continuity of shapes with
Will's designs for all the environments.

When Peyton came to
me in the first place

and we started talking
about this whole project

and the idea of the Quantum Realm
being this vast worlds within worlds,

he wanted it to feel
like it was huge.

I'm really happy with how
Janet's homestead turned out,

because it's very much
in my initial sketches

and playing with ideas to Peyton,
this idea of subatomic particles

and that maybe the abode that she
lived in was such a tiny particle,

and it crashed down through various
Quanta and landed on a plain and had died,

and its energy had
dissipated over time.

And that became this kind
of cave-like structure.

That was realized
in quite a nice way.

This is the exterior
of Janet's homestead,

and what we wanted to do
here, we were talking about

from early on, was almost to
have it like a prairie land,

like an old Western, like an old-timer
who was seeing out their days.

And this set was meant
to echo that, really,

the idea of some weird
Quantum prairie land

with these strange
Quantum plants,

and this would be
developed by VFX

and extended into much bigger,
greater rolling plains.

These rock walls, again, with the
idea of Quantum energy down here,

that somehow the Quantum energy had
solidified and created these patterns.

And again, when we pull
out into the wider shots,

we're going to have these patterns
running through the landscape,

as well as the actual crops.

Something again that was strongly
pushed throughout this whole show

is trying to create really
interesting compositions.

This idea of the sphere
and concentric spheres,

and here we have
Janet's homestead,

which is a series of
concentric spheres in itself.

And in many ways, this room is a
precursor to Kang's Celestium as well.

Those little design ideas that
were developed out from this idea

into the Celestium itself.

Whoa!

We are on the Richard
Attenborough Stage at Pinewood,

and this is Kang's Celestium
with his Time Sphere.

It's something that I really wanted
to keep as part of Kang's language,

was this circular
or spherical motif.

I looked at a lot
of Japanese Kintsugi

in the way that you have those
sort of cracks through rocks,

and you can seal it up
and re-perfect things.

Which is kind of what Kang is doing,
destroying stuff and then rebuilding it

in a fashion that he sees fit.

I built an empire
down here, Janet.

And I'm taking it with me.

Again, I really wanted to
create very kind of graphic moments

in terms of composition and
try to give Bill Pope, our DP,

an environment in which we
could actually frame up Kang

and it almost looked like panels
from comic book or graphic novel.

Ready... Three,
two, one, action!

- Katy.
- And, bang!

Go, Steve.

Here he comes. And, bang!

I loved the
idea of building

a sort of barbarian type warrior
character for this movie.

That felt like something that
we really hadn't seen so much.

You see a little in Thor,
you know, with Valkyrie,

but somebody who
really felt like

straight out of a Robert E.
Howard, you know, pulp novel.

I had worked with Katy
O'Brian on The Mandalorian

and I thought she was terrific.

She's a bodybuilder and
a fighter, and for real.

She's got great presence, and we
needed someone that was strong

and could embody that aspect of a
leader, but also the wisdom of a leader.

And Katy makes great
impact in that role.

With Jentorra, I really liked the
idea that it was a revolutionary.

It was something different.
It was someone who was

fighting for the greater good,

as opposed to maybe
suppressing the greater good.

I want people to see, you know, a
strong female role in a positive light.

Because this is like a dream
role in a lot of ways.

What are you doing here?

I'm rescuing you.

How?

When it came to the costume, I was so
glad that Sammy, the costume designer,

called me and she was like, "Hey,
have you seen the costume yet?

"Have you seen what we're
pitching?" And I'm like, "No."

She's like, "Okay, I thought
you might want to know

"you're pretty exposed."

And I was like, "Okay, I'll
go to the gym. Thank you."

Jentorra, we were
looking more at a kind of

growth, bone architecture.

And seeing what we
could do with her armor,

to make it more like she's found
a skeleton of a tiny creature

and used that.

He built his citadel on
the bones of our people.

They were trying
to connect it to the world,

because our people, they're very
much of the world, of the Earth,

of the Quantum Realm.

So, the blue color that we
have kind of meshes in with

things that you might
find in our environment.

Once we added the hair, makeup,
everything, it just clicks.

You know who you are
and who your people are

and where you're going.

Welcome back to the
Quantum Realm, Scott.

I've been waiting a
long time for this.

M.O.D.O.K.
was always a character

that we wanted to
get into the MCU

somehow, somewhere.

A mechanized organism
designed only for killing.

Now I get it. It's an acronym.

Actually, that's M.O.D.O.F.K.

Such an odd design,
a little bit off-putting,

but really great and memorable.

And we thought, like, does
Kang need a henchman in this movie?

And we talked about
all these things.

And M.O.D.O.K., if
there's ever a context

for M.O.D.O.K. to succeed
in live action in the MCU,

it feels like the Quantum Realm.

And it hit me

like the loudest bell I've ever
heard. Like, "Wait a second."

"What if we have Darren
Cross become M.O.D.O.K.?"

Hi, Hank.

Darren?

There we go. All right, we're
set. And three, two, one, action!

When we originally shot Ant-Man,
Darren is, like, arrested

at the end in his super suit.

And I was like, "Okay, great."

Here we go. And, action!

Then we went back for reshoots
and nobody told me anything.

And I was looking at the sides,
and this is, you know, uh...

Darren becomes like a tiny
little ball of red goo.

I was like, "Oh, can't
really come back from that."

And then there was
another iteration

where he just sort of shrinks
infinitely into a little dot.

And I said, "Okay, that's
survivable in this world."

But clearly he
would have been hurt very bad.

He would've been disfigured
by this accident.

So we started thinking about that,
and we started to think that maybe

there's an origin story
in there for M.O.D.O.K.

That was exciting to us.

And I remember the day
that we called Corey,

because Corey Stoll,
you may not know this,

a massive comics
nerd growing up,

knew who M.O.D.O.K. was, loved the
idea, and really, really embraced it.

I was like, "Yes, I'm in."

Action!

Welcome back to the
Quantum Realm, Scott.

I've been waiting a
long time for this.

Darren?

You're looking at
a man set free.

I've created so much more here
than you could possibly imagine.

And cut it!

That's the fulfillment of a
dream. I didn't know I had.

Nowhere left to run.

I would have never thought

that that's a character that
I'd get to play or want to play.

I'm the
ultimate weapon!

It's just so
ridiculous and so broad.

But, I mean, it all
makes so much sense.

I think the audience
doesn't even know

that they're waiting for this
resolution to my character.

I bet you thought you'd
seen the last of me.

Just now noticing the baby legs.

They're not baby legs.

You think you're so smart.

Scott Lang, the man who
took everything from me.

Who stole my whole life.

And the filming
technique they were using...

It could go one way, It
could be like a real pain,

with dots on your face
and you have this camera

and you don't know what
you're going to look like

and it was so
incredibly satisfying.

It's, in some ways, I feel
like the ideal way to act.

Because you're not waiting
for any technology,

even though the whole performance
is so based on technology.

You're not waiting for
lights, for camera.

You're not waiting for sound.

You're not waiting for
hair and makeup even.

You know, you're just... It was
just me and the rest of the cast

in this open space.

It felt like a really
cool play rehearsal,

except that all this
rehearsal is being captured

as data that can be turned
into this performance.

You always were a brother to me.

I was?

I was.

And at least I died

an Avenger.

Yeah.

- You did.
- Yeah. No, it's...

You're in.

We really liked
making an Ant-Man film

as important, as integral
to the MCU going forward

as any other film.

I think that's an important
beat. As you step out of that thing

and land here, that
looking to her,

you know, taking your time with
that before you then turn to this...

- I do?
- Yeah.

It's teeing up
Kang in a very big way.

It's teeing up the future of this
very fearsome, very formidable foe

within the MCU.

It's going to help show us
where the MCU is going next.

But I love that we're getting to make
a trilogy out of Ant-Man.

And, shrink!

Yeah, back to one. Let's try
one more right away, guys.

That's great.

The fact that
not only he gets a trilogy,

but that Peyton will have
directed all three films,

that Peyton has seen the trilogy
home is so exciting to me.

I've loved working
with Peyton. I feel lucky

that I've had someone like him

to kind of guide me.

Shockwave that comes
out

and just take you
out of frame there.

We'll do a separate shot of a second
thing which is like...

Coming from that port.

To be able to do
the kind of superhero action

and the heart and the humor...

He just gets it.

This is, uh, a day
one of, uh, Ant-Man.

I want to thank you
all for being here.

I'm so psyched about this movie.
We're going to have a great shoot.

I know a lot of you have been
waiting a very long time to shoot.

And today's the
day. Let's do it.

- Thank you so much.
- Yeah!

I grew up with
Superman: The Movie

and Star Wars and Raiders
and all those things.

And I'd always wanted
to do a movie like that.

So, for me, it was
really gratifying

because we were able to just
paint on this really large canvas.

- Okay.
- Boom! So you know what to do.

Scott Lang has been
really important in my life,

and it really has been an
amazing group of people

I've gotten to spend a
good chunk of time with.

Even in Civil War, I think I had
that scene where we're on the tarmac

and I'm meeting Captain
America for the first time,

and some of the other Avengers.

The whole thing was surreal,

and I felt a little bit like the
character that I was playing.

I still feel that.

I can't believe I'm,
I'm on this team.

I've treasured
it. I really have.

I know before we ever
started shooting this thing,

I'd tell people, you
know, I'm going to...

"What are you working
on?" I'd say, "Ant-Man"

"Ant-Man? What's Ant-Man?"

"It's a Marvel movie."

"Ant-Man?" Because not many
people know the character.

And they'd say, "What
are your powers?"

I'd say, "Well, I can shrink."

They'd say, "Okay."

"But I can also talk to ants."