Go Behind The Scenes On The Ant-Man and the Wasp Set

 Thank you to Marvel Studios for hosting me during this visit to the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp.

I was lucky enough to visit the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp last October. As in months and months and months before Avengers: Infinity War. We didn’t know where Ant-Man and the Wasp would fall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. We didn’t know if Ant-Man would actually show up in Infinity War. Yes, I totally asked about all of that. And yes, I totally got looks that said, “She’s funny thinking we’re going to give away anything related to Infinity War.” Hey, I tried, y’all.

Now we’re only a few weeks away from Ant-Man and the Wasp entering theaters. Now we’ve all seen the great Thanos dusting from Infinity War. Now I can finally start talking about all of the things I did find out last October.

Catching Up With Ant-Man

When last we saw Scott Lang, Steve Rogers was breaking him out of the Raft prison. Ant-Man and the Wasp picks up with Scott near the end of two years of house arrest. Those pesky Sokovia Accords mean no more running around as Ant-Man. At least that’s the case until Hope van Dyne and Hank Pym show up with a new mission. As you can see from the trailers, comedy-and adventure-ensues…

Although the movie has some sci-fi elements, thanks to the quantum realm, Executive Producer Stephen Broussard has a different name for the genre. “We call it One Bad Night movies, where stuff just keeps going wrong and it gets worse and worse.”

One thing that’s different about Ant-Man and the Wasp? “It’s… a movie about family way more than a lot of the other Marvel movies are,” says Stephen. “It’s a movie about fathers and daughters and parents and children and there are all these parallel relationships. You’ve got Scott and his daughter Cassie. You’ve got Hank and Hope, and Hope missing her own mother, Janet.” They’re also regular people. “They’re not billionaires. They haven’t been bombarded by gamma rays or bitten by spiders.”

Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place over the course of three days in San Fransisco. After the massive scale of Avengers: Infinity War, this was by design. “I think this will feel like a good chaser,” says Stephen.  “We wanted it to feel more contained.”

“We are doubling down on the whole idea that this place takes place in real-world environments,” according to Production Designer Shepherd Frankel. “Hank’s on the run, and the whole movie’s a little bit of a chase movie,”

On The Set Of Ant-Man and the Wasp

We were able to visit the set of Hank Pym’s lab, which shrinks down to a portable size in the film. Instead of using green-screens, the lab was a practical set. In the original Ant-Man film they didn’t create any over-sized props. For the Pym Lab they created tons of them. “You’ll see Legos grown huge, you’ll see an erector set kind of makes the architecture of the place. Volume knobs from guitar amplifiers are huge,” says Stephen. “Hank Pym is not a billionaire, so he’s grown small things big to afford to do this.”

“We wanted to create environments where we, as full-size people, would walk into and question our scale,” according to Shepherd. 

The centerpiece of the Pym lab (located right behind us) is the Tunnel. This is how they access the quantum realm in the film.

Be on the lookout for Easter Eggs throughout the lab when you watch Ant-Man and the Wasp. We didn’t get any hints as to what we could find, but they were definitely confirmed to be there! 

And just because they built a practical set for the lab that doesn’t mean they didn’t embrace green screen technology. During our visit they filmed a scene with Hope, Scott and Cassie in front of a giant green screen. It involved an iPad, a Hot Wheels car, and I’ve probably already said too much…

Ant-Man, Giant-Man…Variable-Man?

The character of Ant-Man was established in the original film. In Captain America: Civil War we were introduced to Giant-Man. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, we’ll see Variable-Man. Variable-Man isn’t an official name, but rather what they internally referred to as Scott Lang’s ability to switch between different sizes. This suit technology causes a few problems during a scene at Cassie’s school. Several people on the set referred to it not only as one of their favorite scenes, but also one of the most difficult scenes to shoot.

Stay tuned for all of the Ant-Man and the Wasp action

All this week I’ll be sharing more from the visit to the Ant-Man and the Wasp set. On Saturday I’ll be heading to LA for the #AntManAndTheWaspEvent. I’ll be posting it all on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram during the event and right here on the blog in the coming weeks! Ant-Man and the Wasp is in theaters on July 6, 2018.

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, a new chapter featuring heroes with the astonishing ability to shrink. In the aftermath of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, Scott Lang grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father. As he struggles to rebalance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside the Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from the past.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is directed by Peyton Reed and stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John Kamen, Abby Ryder-Fortson, Randall Park, with Michelle Pfeiffer, with Laurence Fishburne and Michael Douglas.