Early ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Concept Art Gives Ghost Phase Claws

Ant-Man and the Wasp introduced Marvel fans to an entirely new kind of villain, and it looks like her aesthetic almost had some major differences.

A new piece of Ant-Man and the Wasp concept art, courtesy of Tully Summers, has made its way online, which showcases one of the early designs for Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). The concept art, which you can check out below, gives Ghost’s costume a set of “Phase Claws”, which would have allowed her to physically manipulate objects around her in a new way.

As Summers explains on his website, the Phase Claws were ultimately taken out of the costume for a very specific reason.

“Keying of some of the comic images I gave her long phase claws that would “cut” reality and allow her to phase through things.” Summers reveals. “Eventually deemed too visually similar to Wolverine claws.”

Ultimately, it seems like Ant-Man and the Wasp made a good choice, as Ava has been embraced by Marvel fans since the film’s debut. And it sounds like that was, in part, thanks to John-Kamen’s approach to the character.

“I approach the character not like ‘Okay she’s a villain she’s bad’, you know, she’s a threat, definitely, to the protagonists,” John-Kamen said in a previous interview. “She has an objective and she’s the good guy in her mind and everyone else is bad. You’ve got to find, I find, the humanity in whatever you’re playing when you are playing the antihero in a movie I think you really have to find the balance there of the threat but also the vulnerability with that, that comes with that.”

“I think with any role it’s always a blank slate to carve anything, whether you’re playing a superhero, a villain, anything from any comic, I think it’s important as an actor to have your own input, interpretation of that anyway,” John-Kamen continued. “And so, it’s been amazing. It’s been so much fun to work with Peyton [Reed] on that.”

And considering where things left off with Ant-Man and the Wasp, it apparently isn’t out of the question that we could see Ava again.

“In this case, the story was always – spoiler! – to keep her around.” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained last month. “This was not the story of defeating a villain and everybody cheering. This is a different kind of villain story. When and where – in the tag, he mentions ‘his new Ghost friend’ – is something we’ll see. But there’s nothing better than struggling over the decision about what characters to bring into a movie, casting those characters, writing and putting them together in a way that works in the movie, and then have audiences go ‘We love them, when are we going to see them again?’ Shuri for sure is a great example of that. So with Ghost it is, step one: complete. As for step two, we’ll see where we go with that.”

Would you have wanted to see Ghost have these “Phase Claws”? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is currently in theaters. Captain Marvel will follow it in March of 2019, with Avengers 4 coming in May of 2019 and Spider-Man: Far From Home slated for release on July 5, 2019.