SPOILER WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man," now in theaters.
The action in Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man" may take place on the small scale, but the movie delivered some very big reveals.
Now that audiences have begun to experience the surprises the latest Marvel movie offers, CBR News turned to director Peyton Reed for insight into some of the more spoiler-ific (and particularly delightful) moments in the movie. Read no further if you haven't hit the multiplex just yet -- serious spoilers are ahead! -- otherwise, let Reed offer a peek into moments with repercussions that will presumably be felt in the near future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
CBR News: I loved the sequence with Anthony Mackie as the Falcon because it was so "Marvel." It was exactly what you would see happen in a classic Marvel comic book.
Peyton Reed: Absolutely.
Tell me about putting that idea together, and getting it all to work.
That was something that wasn't in the original drafts. [Screenwriters] Adam McKay and Paul [Rudd, who also stars in the title role] and I bonded on the idea that in a heist movie one of those tropes is before the big heist, everything's set, but there's this one piece of technology, this one thing we need in order to pull off the heist. If we don't have this thing, all bets are off.
In this version, it was a piece of technology Pym had designed, and Scott's got to go get it. It's a trial by fire. He's not necessarily equipped yet to do it. We love the idea of, in order to get that thing, Scott's got to go through another Marvel character. And we talked about who it was, we landed on Falcon, for a couple reasons. I always loved that character in the comics, and I love the character in "Winter Soldier." I love Anthony Mackie. And it felt like he's such a serious character in that movie, let's bring him into this movie that's a whole different tone, a more comedic tone, and utilize him in that way.
It inspired the kids in all of us. Like, when we're reading Marvel comics, it's like: this character has this power; this character has these powers. What would happen if they went up against each other? There's such a wish fulfillment aspect to that, it got us all excited.
We end on Hope Van Dyne gifted with her own Wasp costume from her father. At this time when people are really clamoring for female superheroes, how important was it to you to get to that moment?
Well, it was really, really important to me to sort of make Wasp's character, to make Evangeline [Lilly]'s character, one of the major arcs of the movie. Also, because she's such a strong female character and in the comics -- Ant Man and Wasp are inseparable.
But to have Evangeline, who is amazing and dove in and did the fight choreography and everything, it was important for the arc of Ant Man's story too because for Hank Pym, the sort of solution to his problems is right there under his nose the whole time. He just can't see it yet. So throughout the course of the movie, he has to become enlightened about her. And he's trying to protect her, but what he's really doing is kind of holding her back. So the movie is very much about her figuratively and literally spreading her wings by the end of the movie.
Tell me why Evangeline is the right actress to play the Wasp going forward?
Well, Evangeline takes it very seriously. She's, obviously, a very beautiful woman, but her attitude about herself and life and those characters really inform this movie. She wanted to present a very strong character. At the beginning of the movie, when we meet her, she's a very troubled character. And she has a lot to learn throughout the movie as well. I really think she's the perfect person to play it. And when you see her in the movie going up against some of the bad guys in the movie, she kicks ass.
Would you ever want to do a retro-'80s Ant Man and Wasp movie, with the young Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne in a pre-Avengers era?
Oh, that would be amazing. It's something we, sitting around in the cutting room, talk about all the time. It would be unbelievably great.
"Ant-Man" is in theaters now.