Peyton Reed Discusses Ant-Man and The Wasp

I wonder what it’s like to direct a big budget movie. I mean, what goes through your head when you know that you’re in charge of one? How about directing the sequel to the first one that was successful beyond MY expectations. I’ll be the first to admit that watching Ant-Man the first time wasn’t as amazing as I expected it to be. Coming from semi-serious situations in Avengers movies, I was expecting that same level. My mind wasn’t ready. However, after watching it a second time to prepare for Ant-Man and The Wasp, I appreciated it for what it was and saw that Peyton Reed’s style of directing took on an approach that found wonderful. I DID get serious. With characters Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne, but the funny came through Scott, Luis, Dave, and Kurt. Peyton Reed came through with everything I never knew I needed in a Marvel movie. Plus, there’s the Quantum Realm. ‘Nuff said. 

So about that quantum realm 

Peyton sat down with us and discussed his vision with the realm that started with the first Ant-Man movie. Of course we only got to see a bit of it, but in Ant-Man and The Wasp, you explore it for a longer time, and get right down to the atom of it. 

I think there was a concentrated effort in the first Ant-Man and in Dr. Strange to kind of start embracing that psychedelic aspect of the Marvel Comics, which is always part of the Marvel Comics since the ’60s, but had not really been explored in the MCU. There are different dimensions and hopefully, they’re all gonna serve different purposes in the future.

It was really fun to sort of design what that could look like dramatically, how it would work, but then it also had to fit into the rest of our movie which is, compared to some of the other Marvel movies, a little more grounded. With regards to our movie, it was something where we were trying to figure out what we were gonna show and how we were gonna deal with the plots around it. We had to key off what we saw in the first movie, but we wanted to show the audience a little more. It was really fun to design what that could look like, dramatically, how it would work but then it also had to fit into the rest of our movie which is, compared to some of the other Marvel movies, a little more grounded. Ant-Man takes place in our world, not in Outer Space or Asgard or something like that. It had to have a reality to it too so it was a huge challenge to visualize the concept around it but really, really fun. 

On using Morrissey in the film 

Let me go on record right now and tell you that I had no idea who Morrissey was before this film. I’m okay with that. Luis mentions him in a story, and it’s hysterical from there. Mostly because Morrissey has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story – those details Luis – but totally has everything to do with the soundtrack. Reed tells us why he intentionally put those songs into the movie, and the importance of him in his life. 

For a very brief time, years ago, I played Drums in a Morrissey/Smiths cover band called ‘Louder Than Bombs’. We played a few shows here in Los Angeles just for fun and then quickly learned as people came to see the show [there was another cover band]. We went and saw that cover band, who were way better than our cover band. They were all Latino kids and that I learned that Morrissey had a huge following in Los Angeles. It occurred to us as something that Luis would know about and be into and particularly the idea that his Grandma only plays Morrissey

 

Will Cassie become a Young Avenger? 

If you read the comics, you’ll know that I’m not spoiling anything so get your undies out of a twist. There is a sweet scene in the movie where Cassie Longs asks her dad some important questions, and those of us with a BIT of background (I studied up before the junket) know that it does in fact lead to Cassie donning her own superhero gear later in life. Is that a major spoiler that Reed just dropped on us?! 

I think that everybody is aware from the first Ant-man and now in the Ant-man and The Wasp, who Cassie Lange is in the comics and that she does become a hero. And so I think we wanted to definitely start laying some groundwork for that possibility. I don’t know what specific plans are but I really liked the idea.

And I really love the idea of doing that intimate scene where she’s talking about maybe needing a partner and in her mind, it’s her and him having to say,  ‘of course you could do it, but I’d be a terrible father if I allowed you to do it.’ I think that’s one of the things that I liked the most in the movie is the evolution of the Scott/Cassie relationship. It helps that Abby is so good. She’s such a really focused young actor, you and it’s sort of rare.

What I can say about Peyton Reed is he loves his craft, and that showed immensely during his sit-down with us, and it really came through in the answer that he carefully answered because he couldn’t give away too many details. It is Marvel you know, and Michael Douglas warned us of those blow darts.   

Ant-Man and  The Wasp is in theaters NOW and you’ll want to check it out, because spoilers will be coming in all of these updates, and you don’t want to be mad. Remember to stay for ALL of the credits!