The following article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opened to a solid start at the box office this past weekend, and although the film’s CGI, plot, and ending have proven divisive among Marvel fans, new reports suggest Scott Lang's third solo movie wasn’t always meant to play out the way it did, with some essential twists being reshot close to its premiere.
Suffice it to say, Ant-Man 3 has not won over critics, as the film has received mostly negative to mixed reviews. However, on the other end, moviegoers’ opinion on this MCU entry has not been as harsh. Still, a big contention point is Scott's fate in the movie, as trailers suggested Kang the Conqueror could have defeated Ant-Man and the Wasp by trapping them in the Quantum Realm or outright killing one of the heroes.
According to several fan theories compiled in the MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit, several MCU insiders, YouTubers, and media outlets claimed that Ant-Man 3's ending was changed in January. At the time, Paul Rudd was spotted reshooting Ant-Man 3 scenes at a location where he’s seen walking by near the end, in which the entire ant family makes it back home to San Francisco. Instead of Kang the Conqueror being trapped or killed by his multiversal travel machine's core, Hope van Dyne's rescue attempt would have failed, resulting in the couple being stranded in the Quantum Realm but Kang escaping.
The reason this gloomier ending could have been changed includes possible efforts to avoid repetition from Ant-Man 2, which had to leave Scott trapped in the Quantum Realm to set up Avengers: Endgame. Another explanation for the altered ending could be that Marvel Studios did not want to kill off one of the most recognizable Avengers from the Infinity Saga so soon. In the presumed original Ant-Man 3 ending, Cassie and the Wasp's poor call would have left Scott's daughter looking for a way to rescue Scott and Hope from the detached universe.
Many fans and critics did not take kindly to Hope conveniently reentering the Quantum Realm with perfect timing to save Scott from near death at Kang's hands and then Cassie somehow managing to rescue the two. If the ending was changed at the last minute, Ant-Man 3 could have wrapped up with Kang entering Marvel's Earth-616 or some other reality to continue with his mission of defeating all his variants in the Council of Kangs.
More than anything, because Jonathan Majors is regarded as Ant-Man 3's best asset, the scrapped ending may have robbed viewers of more Kang the Conqueror.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently available in theaters.
Source: MarvelStudiosSpoilers/Reddit