Marvel fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 5: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This picture has promised to be an exciting affair, as it reintroduces timelord-esque supervillain Kang the Conquerer as its main antagonist. But Paul Rudd has recently explained how, during filming, a foul stench ruined some of their days on the elaborate soundstage.
Marvel films over the past few years have casually been criticised by fans online for relying on green screens a little too much. Statuesque actors, adorned in their larger-than-life costumes, would stand, entirely statically, between burning buildings and explosive environments while trying their best to emote urgency.
Rudd has claimed that has all changed for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Speaking at a recent red carpet event, Rudd explained that, although the movie has CGI, there “is stuff that’s practical”.
“We try to do as much of that as possible,” he went on. “And we created one whole set on a sound stage where we have, you know, giant crazy buildings and it’s a weird scene. It’s like a planet, almost. It looked strange and it was filled with dirt and so we really felt like we were in the Quantum Realm for real.”
However, there was something included in the soundstage that the production designers had not counted on, and it quickly became an issue for the movie.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s director, Peyton Reed, doesn’t think that’s going to be an issue, though. He recently spoke out about the scale of the movie, and how it really matters in terms of the ongoing MCU narrative.
Speaking with Empire, he said of his previous Marvel movies, Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp: “People felt like, oh, these are fun little palate cleansers after a gigantic Avengers movie.”
“For this third one,” he assured fans. “I said: ‘I don’t want to be the palate cleanser anymore. I want to be the big Avengers movie.'”
Reed explained how he approached Marvel Studios boss, Kevin Feige, and told him he wanted to pit Ant-Man and Wasp against a “really formidable villain”. As a result, he claimed Kang the Conquerer.
He went on: “It struck me as interesting to take the tiniest Avengers — in some people’s minds maybe the least powerful Avengers — and put them up against the most powerful force in the multiverse.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits cinemas on February 17, 2023.
SOURCE / SOURCE