‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Director Reveals the Russo Brothers’ Input on ‘Infinity War’ Scene

Marvel Studios’ latest film Ant-Man and the Wasp was a tonal shift after the dramatic events of Avengers: Infinity War, showing a lighthearted adventure focusing on reuniting families. It ends happily, then the credits hit, and everything is great.

Then the mid-credits stinger plays, the Snap happens, and it all goes to hell quickly.

Director Peyton Reed spoke at a Collider Q&A about the scene and revealed the pivotal input made by Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo as well as writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

“We all talked—it was Paul [Rudd], [Ant-Man and the Wasp writers] Chris McKenna and Eric Summers—and we sat down with the Russo Brothers and the screenwriters Marcus and McFeely about the timeline, but there was still a discussion with our movie in terms of who was going to get dusted, who was going to be on the parking deck,” recalled Reed.

“At one point we talked about, ‘Is Bill Foster up there? Is Eva Starr up there? Do they all dust out?’ but then it became a percentages thing. It’s supposed to be 50%, so it can’t be, ‘Really? All of them went? That seems different than what I saw in Infinity War?’ There were certain things that we knew. Marcus and McFeely pitched an idea for the scene and we all kind of built off that idea. It involved Scott and it involved Luis’ van and a new Quantum Tunnel 2.0, but it was very collaborative thing.“

The director mentioned the back-and-forth discussions they had on the first Ant-Man, which he showed the Russos early on so they knew how to play the character when he appeared in Captain America: Civil War, and how that set up their working relationship for the latest set of movies.

“This one was tricky because with the ending of Infinity War, there’s not a bigger dramatic swing you can take with a movie. We knew if we introduced that concept too early in Ant-Man and the Wasp, because we talked about that early on, and if you introduce it too early, then that’s all anyone cares about because it threatens to dramatically take over your story,” Reed said.

Ultimately, it seems like they arrived at the best possible conclusion, because after the fun had in Ant-Man and the Wasp, that mid-credits scene was a gut punch. The movie is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.