“Quantumania” Writer Jeff Loveness Talks Cut Wasp Storyline, Potential Jennifer Coolidge Role and More

Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has made a big splash in theaters after debuting just a week ago. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer Jeff Loveness discussed a variety of interesting topics, including a storyline for the Wasp that didn’t make the film and the role he wanted Jennifer Cooldige to play.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania spoilers ahead

  • One of the critiques of Marvel’s latest film was the small role the titular Wasp actually had to play in it. Loveness revealed that there was actually more of a story for Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne, involving two children, it just simply didn’t make the cut:
    • “Scripts are always bigger than the cut that the audience sees, and while that was a storyline that I really liked with Hope and Evangeline [Lilly], I certainly understand why we had to streamline the movie. I really love the movie that’s out in theaters, but there was a bit more. Again, I don’t quite know what I can say, but there was Hope’s perspective on the multiverse as well, and possibility, and things like that. So I’m a fan of that story, and I’m a big fan of Evangeline’s performance in some of that stuff. So you never know what might come back around in an Avengers movie down the road, but I can’t say too much more.”
  • Speaking of things that didn’t make it into the movie, Loveness had an idea to expand upon Linda, the former love interest mentioned briefly by Hank Pym:
    • “I don’t know if I should say this or not. I don’t think it even made it into pages, but we wanted Jennifer Coolidge to be Linda for a brief moment. It never reached beyond a Zoom between ourselves, but I had some good ideas there.”
  • Still, Loveness isn’t ruling out a future in the MCU for Coolidge:
    • “But Linda never made it, and Jennifer Coolidge, I don’t think she ever got a call. We’ll save her for next time. I’m sure she’ll wind up in the MCU, sometime. She can be Doctor Doom.”
  • Of course, Loveness also discussed Kang, the villain of the film and the big bad of the MCU going forward. He mentioned being a fan of Marvel Comics and how another iconic Marvel villain inspired his approach to this character:
    • “I was a big X-Men guy growing up, and there’s no fictional character I love more than Chris Claremont’s Magneto. He wrote that character for like 40 years and put him through so many seasons of his life. And so just to write this Kang the Conqueror as a lion during winter felt like a really interesting place to begin with him. We can get his ethos and his passion, and then, by the time we see him or another variant of him again, we’ll have more room to play with him because we’ll know his vibe.”

  • Another criticism of the film is the ending of the story for Kang. Many fans expected much bigger consequences with Kang being the big bad of the next Avengers film. Loveness said other outcomes were considered and teased some of Kang’s future in the process:
    • “I think people say they want that, but do you really want to see Paul Rudd get murdered in his third movie? It was all debated, all discussed and all gamed out, but in The Wizard of Oz, you don’t want to see Dorothy die and never go home. It’s supposed to be one of these classic adventure movies. If everyone gets eaten in Jurassic Park, I don’t know if you’ll want to see the next Jurassic Park. But I wouldn’t worry too much about Kang’s kill count. He’s going to rack up some kills as he goes along.”
  • Loveness leaned on the comics for support in assuring the fans they have not seen the last of Kang:
    • “If you go back in the comics, you can beat Thanos once, and that’s the end of the day. Kang is not a guy that you can beat once; he is an existential problem. And so he doesn’t care if he loses because he’s got nothing but time.”
  • As for what we can expect to see in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, Loveness wasn’t willing to say if it will be the Kang we saw at length in this film or a whole host of Kang variants facing off with the Avengers:
    • “We’ve got a plan and we’ve got a story, but the goal right now, without giving too much away, is to show the true versatility and passion that Jonathan Majors has.”
  • Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is in theaters now.