“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.
