‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’: Peyton Reed On Why Finding Janet Is Important To Hope

Hope van Dyne is not the first Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but finding the original will serve her a huge purpose in Ant-Man and The Wasp.

Speaking to members of the press on the set of Ant-Man and The Wasp, director Peyton Reed expressed how important Janet van Dyne’s rescue is to her daughter Hope. In fact, it is part of what emphasizes Hope’s crucial role in the film.

“That was something that, again, from the get go, and particularly when we decided this movie’s going to be Ant-Man and the Wasp, it’s not Ant-Man with the Wasp. It’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and so it is important to tell those stories separately and, and invest in each, each of the characters’ journey and arc in the movie and one of the big things about this is kind of what’s going on with Hope and the fact that she has, uh, let me delicate so I don’t give anything away.”

Hope’s mission, in addition to thwarting the villainous Ghost, is to rescue her missing mother. “The mission that is happening with her, entirely separate of Scott, is vital and it’s her mission,” Reed said. “It’s not her dad’s mission. It’s her mission. Hank and Hope are working together, but it’s really Hope leading the charge and that was an important thing when we started talking about what was going on is the what and why of this mission, um, and that there may be certain points in this movie where she sees Scott as a liability.

As much as Ant-Man and The Wasp is very much a action-flick blended wtih a romantic comedy, according to Reed, it is also a rescue movie. “The search and rescue aspect is if it is, you know, trying to find Janet van Dyne,” Reed said.

“What does that mean to Hope?” Reed said. “We kind of know what it means to Hank from the first movie. What does it mean to Hope? And if she’s now finally a fully fledged hero in her own right, and you’re in a position like that, you tend to kind of look for mentors or role models and the one person that she would really turn to is not there. Hank can do something. Scott may be a template of maybe what not to do all the time, but that person who really, I think she would ideally want there is not there. That was a really important aspect of the movie.”

Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters now. It will be followed by Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.