Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniahas no shortage of appearances by characters new and old to the MCU. But among these characters, fans might have wondered what happened to Michael Peña’s Luis.
In the firstAnt-Man, audiences are introduced to Luis, Scott Lang’s cellmate, best friend, and sidekick. Peña’s comedic performance and chemistry with Paul Rudd made him a fan favorite when the first film was released, so audiences were excited to see him return for the third film. However, Luis does not return forAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania- in fact, none of Scott’s old gang does. The movie instead focuses entirely on Scott’s family unit - his daughter Cassie, his partner Hope (also known as the Wasp), and Hope’s parents Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym. While it makes sense that thethird installment in theAnt-Mantrilogywould focus more on family, the exclusion of Luis disappointed fans.
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In an interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, director Peyton Reed explained why Luis, Dave, and Kurt didn’t return forAnt-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. “There were no versions of this movie [with Luis]. There are a lot of characters in the movie. We obviously have our Lang, van Dyne and Pym family, but then we also introduced Kang, MODOK and all of our Freedom Fighter characters. So we had to make decisions early on about what stories we could tell and what stories we couldn’t tell,” Reed said. “I love those characters. They were really, really fun and part of the Lang family, but as we got further and further into [development] and knew we wanted to bring the family into the Quantum Realm pretty early in the movie, it just didn’t make sense [to include Luis and co.].”
When asked if the decision to make Scott and Cassie’s relationship the movie’s main focus was influenced byBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever’s original script, Reed explained that Scott and Cassie’s relationship has always been central to theAnt-Manfilms. “…Scott has always had an uneasy relationship with time, even back in the first movie. He’s done prison time, and he just hasn’t had enough time with his daughter. And in the first movie, he had to earn that time together,” he explained. “Cassie is now a young woman who has her own ideas about what it’s like to be a hero, and those are not always the same ideas that Scott Lang has. We also liked the idea that she’s at an age now where she can be critical of her dad. She looks at him and says, ‘What are you doing with your life? You’re signing books. You’re looking in the rear view mirror, and there’s plenty more injustice out there that needs to be dealt with. Why aren’t you doing anything?’ So that struck us as a great progression of that relationship.”
Whether Luis or Peña’s time in the MCU is over is unclear. There’s no reason to assume Luis couldn’t return for a futureAnt-Manfilm or make a surprise appearance in any other Marvel Studios shows or movies. With the continued exploration of the multiverse, fans could potentially get to see Luis from different universes.
While exploring different versions of characters has been reserved forMCU main characters like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Loki, alternate versions of Marvel side characters like Rachel McAdams' Christine Palmer and Aaron-Taylor Johnson’s Quicksilver have been introduced to audiences previously. With that precedent set and no confirmation one way or the other from Peña or Reed, fans may not have seen the last of Luis.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumaniais now playing in theaters.
