Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania Originally Killed Hank Pym, But Let Him Live On Through His Ants
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has definitely taken some chances over the years by embracing some of the more cosmic, psychedelic aspects of the comic books that Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and others made famous. James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" managed to turn a sentient alien tree and a gun-toting talking raccoon into pop culture sensations, and the sequel featured a cameo by the Watchers — the egg-headed omnipotent beings that quietly observe all the past, present and future events in the universe. Still, perhaps no MCU project to date has gone into weirder territory than Peyton Reed's "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," a movie that featured the microscopic Quantum Realm, an infinite amount of Kangs as the villain(s), an unsettling depiction of fan favorite sidekick M.O.D.O.K., and a gelatinous pink blob named Veb (voiced by David Dastmalchian).
Inside the trippy mini-world of the Quantum Realm, quite literally anything is possible. That can be an asset to a story that can use almost any idea and make it work, but it can also lend itself to some wilder concepts that could make the "Ant-Man" universe completely lose touch with the real world. In the case of "Quantumania," there was originally a version of the film's script that saw Michael Douglas' Hank Pym meet his end in a truly peculiar way — by passing away, yet still being capable of communicating with the living through his beloved insects. The idea is pretty far out there, admittedly, but it's also strangely romantic in a sense.
Hank Pym's hive mind
"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" screenwriter Jeff Loveness has confirmed that Hank's death was absolutely considered during the writing process. In an interview with Backstory Magazine, he revealed more about how it could have happened:
"We were going to kill Hank at one point, and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated. His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them. Yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that. [...] That didn't go too far."
"Quantumania" does, noticeably, sideline Michael Douglas' Hank Pym and his daughter Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lily) to a certain degree, so it makes sense that his untimely demise was up for debate in at least one of the drafts of the screenplay. It seems unlikely to ever happen on screen, although it could be a way to convince Douglas to return for one more sequel.
Prior to joining the MCU, Douglas had only appeared in two sequels: "Jewel of the Nile," the follow-up to "Romancing the Stone," and Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," which saw the legendary actor revisit his Oscar-winning role as Gordon Gekko. For Marvel, signing Douglas on for three "Ant-Man" movies and appearing as a de-aged version of Hank Pym in other films was a huge get. The actor has previously said he would only return for "Ant-Man 4" if the film were to kill Hank off, so having his consciousness downloaded into an army of ants would certainly be one way of doing precisely that. Given the somewhat underwhelming box office of "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," however, it's probably best not to count on "Ant-Man 4" happening anytime soon, if ever.