The Ant-Man 3 Ending Fans Think Scott Deserved (& Would Have Made More Sense)
Critics and audiences have been somewhat divided over "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." On the one hand, the film features a number of great performances, a fantastical world, and a promising tease of what Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror can bring to the franchise. On the other, the film is almost too wacky for its own good, piling on so many different CGI set pieces and strange sci-fi rules that the story begins to crumble under the weight.
Capping off a longstanding trilogy while simultaneously kicking off Phase 5 of the MCU is no easy feat. Unfortunately, many have still seen "Quantumania" as a disappointment. It's no secret that Phase 4 of the MCU was a bit messier than its predecessors, with a much wider spread of stories across both the big screen and Disney+. Some entries, like "WandaVision," "Loki," and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" proved to be big hits. But the lack of a mainline "Avengers" movie — or much of an overarching story in general — left the whole phase feeling somewhat disjointed.
"Quantumania" was clearly meant to set up a more obvious roadmap for the coming years of the franchise, while also giving Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) a proper climax to his own series. According to some fans, however, the film's ending fails in both regards.
Be warned, there are major spoilers ahead.
Some fans think Ant-Man shouldn't have had a happy ending
Despite the major danger that Kang appears to pose for most of "Ant-Man 3," Scott and the crew manage to get out almost entirely unscathed. Thanks to Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his army of massive, militant ants, Kang and his forces are defeated. The villain and Ant-Man have a final battle in Kang's throne room, which ends with the conqueror seemingly killed and all the good guys escaping back to Earth. It's a happy ending, but one that some viewers aren't too fond of.
"Apparently the original ending was Scott and Kang 'losing', with him [Scott] staying behind in the Quantum Realm with Kang, who would still be alive," Reddit user u/aVVarmVibrantVibe wrote in a discussion thread about the film. Real or not, this rumored alternate ending would have certainly yielded a more emotionally intense film. "That ending would have been perfect for this movie instead of what we got," u/fakers555 commented. Redditor u/Weekly-Accountant-49 echoed the sentiment that the ending we got was underwhelming, writing, "Basically there were zero stakes. It was like a Simpsons episodes, where whatever happens has no impact on the following episode."
Some commenters pointed out that an ending where Scott gets trapped in the Quantum Realm might have been too similar to the ending of "Ant-Man and the Wasp." And while that may be true, it's still disappointing to see the MCU's new big bad be so easily defeated.
What a sadder ending could have looked like
Would a more grim finale have made more sense for "Quantumania?" In some ways, absolutely. For starters, the technology via which the Lang Gang gets home is confusing at best and dangerously close to a plot hole at worst. It's said earlier in the film that Kang can only escape the Quantum Realm using his multiverse drive core, which Scott and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) destroy in their final duel with the villain. And yet, Cassie (Kathryn Newton) easily opens up another portal for them right after.
This could be explained with some quick sci-fi tech jargon, but that wouldn't fix the emotional effect of Scott getting off so easy. He makes a big show in the climax of being willing to make sacrifices to protect his family, but then he never actually has to. And to top it all off, his total victory cheapens a lot of the drama that the film tries to build around Kang.
Jonathan Majors is excellent, but it's hard to take Kang seriously after he's so easily bested by Ant-Man and the others. "Quantumania" ends with a glimpse at the Council of Kangs and their variant army, which is meant to demonstrate the threat they pose — but these variants don't come off as imposing as the Kang that Scott kills. "I know it [is] supposed to be [intimidating] and menacing but I can't take the council of kangs seriously with that kind of presentation," Redditor u/fakers555 wrote in the same discussion thread mentioned above. If the film's main Kang survived the ending, this tease might have held a lot more weight.