Paul Rudd's Rejected Villain Idea For Ant-Man 2 Seems Like A Mistake From Marvel Studios
On February 14, reviews for the third Marvel Cinematic Universe "Ant-Man" movie, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," began circulating online. As it turns out, many reviews for "Quantumania" describe it as an altogether flawed entry in the ever-expanding MCU. Chief among issues critics are highlighting is the fact that its principal goal seems to be to set up future Marvel storylines, rather than tell a quality story within its own confines. In fact, reviews for the film are negative enough that "Quantumania" secured the second-lowest Rotten Tomatoes score in the MCU's history.
Naturally, in the lead-up to the "Quantumania" premiere, star Paul Rudd was plenty active in the media promoting his latest vehicle. Rudd, of course, is a naturally funny guy, so many of his "Quantumania" interviews consist of more than just standard conversation. For example, in an interview with Looper's sister site Mashed, Rudd shared that he thinks ants would enjoy Heineken beer, momentarily taking seriously the zany premise of a commercial he filmed for the Super Bowl.
On a podcast, Rudd likewise revealed an idea for a villain he proposed during the making of "Ant-Man 2," and while it's avant-garde by MCU standards, it seems like Marvel Studios may have made a mistake by not bringing it to fruition.
Paul Rudd wanted Nathan Fielder to play a sentient gaseous villain in Ant-Man 2
A few days prior to the "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" premiere, Paul Rudd appeared as a guest on an episode of the Fly on the Wall podcast, hosted by former Saturday Night Live comics Dana Carvey and David Spade. At the 12:32 mark, Carvey asks Rudd if he and his co-writer on the first "Ant-Man" movie Adam McKay happened to at any point throw caution to the wind and write something ludicrous into "Ant-Man," perhaps even to its benefit.
"I don't know of anything that they went with," Rudd replied. "I think in the second one we talked about the villain being kind of this thing that went from person to person. We loved the idea of having Nathan Fielder be the bad guy, because it just seemed like a really weird choice, and funny."
Unfortunately for anyone that might have enjoyed Fielder somehow fitting into the Marvel Cinematic Universe's style, and as a villainous gas-thing that can possess people at that, Rudd described this proposition as a little too out there for his Marvel bosses. "When your villain is an invisible gas, they don't really feel like they're gonna make that movie," he continued. Whether or not the idea in its totality would have benefitted the second "Ant-Man" movie, it's hard to argue that it wouldn't at least have been pretty funny had it made it into the film.