‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ Director Explains Why Certain Quantum Realm Scenes Were Cut

Ant-Man and the Wasp opened up the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in interesting ways, but it sounds like some of the film’s more out-of-the-box sequences were cut for a very specific reason.

During a recent fan event with Collider and IMAX, Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed spoke about some of the film’s deleted scenes, which showed Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) navigating the Quantum Realm.

“Well yeah, there’s a deleted Quantum Realm scene on the Blu-Ray and streaming.” Reed said. “And it’s just, it’s a bit where Hank and Janet are traversing the Quantum Realm, back to the pod, and they encounter this…some sort of amorphous creature. And instead of fighting it, she’s able to communicate with it and says basically ‘We come in peace’. And it says ‘Go in peace,’ and they go on. And it was really there as a little more coloring, to sort of suggest that she’s not alone down there. There are all different kinds of life forms down there. And also that she’s got some skills in terms of navigating the Quantum Realm.”

“There was another sequence we shot, actually, where Hank got injured, and she actually fought off some Quantum creatures.” Reed continued. “We saw her use the sword and stuff like that, and then also had that scene where she plays a sort of peacemaker. So you got to see Janet, the warrior, Janet the diplomat, and then Janet, the wife of Hank Pym.”

As Reed revealed, those scenes ultimately weren’t included in the finished cut of Ant-Man and the Wasp, so as to not distract from the final battle happening at the same time in the movie.

“But it really sort of, it was all about balance and cross-cutting between that ending.” Reed explained. “There were some cool scenes on their own, but they really sort of — they didn’t solve the questions the audience had. They just sort of produced more questions.”

These Quantum Realm moments – and the majority of the time the film spends in that space – have already begun to pique the interests of Marvel fans, with some wondering if the other creatures could somehow play a role in Avengers: Endgame and beyond.

“If she is alive, what would that place look like and what would have been going on while she was there and not up on terra firma?” Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd explained on the film’s commentary track. “This idea that there are other things down there that you could interact with is interesting, and God knows there are tardigrades and all kinds of microscopic things. Treating it almost like outer space made sense.”

Are you sad that these scenes weren’t in the final cut of Ant-Man and the Wasp? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8th, Avengers: Endgame on April 26th, and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.