A couple of major Marvel Cinematic Universe characters were notably absent from Avengers: Infinity War, with Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man nowhere to be found. In the case of the latter, that was because his solo sequel was shooting at roughly the same time as the third all-star outing for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
Trying to schedule two massive productions almost simultaneously must have been a logistical nightmare, and director Peyton Reed wasn’t helped by the veil of secrecy surrounding Infinity War, making things even more difficult for the filmmaker when Ant-Man and the Wasp was set to hit theaters less than six weeks after Thanos succeeded in turning half of the universe to dust.
Reed reveals in new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe via ComicBook that Infinity War‘s jaw-dropping finale put him in a difficult position when it came to crafting his own post-credit scene, with the disappearance and presumed death of Scott Lang’s closest confidants hardly in keeping with the light and breezy tone of the Ant-Man series.
“We did not know for a long time how we were gonna deal with it, because Infinity War is the biggest dramatic move in the entire MCU. At the end end of the third act, we almost wrap all the characters up into a neat bow: They have rescued Janet. Hank and Janet are back together. Scott and Hope have resolved their things. She’s a fully formed hero. Everybody seems great. and then that tag scene came along, and we pull the rug out from the audience and we trap Scott in the Quantum Realm.”
It all worked out pretty well in the end, though, with Ant-Man and the Wasp offering an entertaining palate cleanser after the weighty Infinity War, while Scott ended up as an integral part of Endgame after stumbling on the time travel idea.