‘Ant-Man’ End-Credits Scene Was Not Originally Planned To Connect To ‘Captain America: Civil War’

If the end-credits scene of “Ant-Man” appeared a little different from the rest of the film, that might be because different directors were responsible for the two pieces of the flick. Peyton Reed revealed he didn’t direct the final post-credits scene because it wasn’t footage that was intended for his movie. In fact, he planned to use entirely different footage after the credits.

[SPOILER ALERT: You’re about to find out what happens in the “Ant-Man” post-credits scenes. Don’t read if you don’t want to know.]

There are two post-credits scenes in “Ant-Man.” The earlier one depicts Hope (Evangeline Lilly) in her Wasp costume, and it was always planned. However, the later one, showing Captain America (Chris Evans), Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), wasn’t originally intended for “Ant-Man.” It’s a scene of “Captain America: Civil War,” the Marvel Studios film directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, and planned for release next May.

It’s apparently much more dramatic than the first options for the final tag. “We actually cut some tags -- most of them were comedic tags,” Reed told Entertainment Weekly. “I think we cut some things with Michael Pena’s Luis character and [Paul] Rudd’s Scott Lang. They were mostly going to be these non sequitur comedic tags.”

It wasn’t until “Captain America: Civil War” footage became available that Reed decided to change it. “Those were dailies from ‘Civil War’ that we cut into a very succinct tag, just to kind of show the audience the progression,” Reed explained. “They know the Falcon is looking for Ant-Man for some reason at the end of our movie, we don’t know why. And then that second tag sort of gives a slight [bit of] more information about the situation that Captain America and Falcon find themselves in.”

The end-credits scene shows Bucky with his arm in some sort of machine while Captain America and Falcon discuss what to do with him. They don’t believe that they can go to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) for help, but Falcon says he knows a guy. Audiences assume he is referring to Ant-Man. Although it isn’t a lighthearted scene, Reed sounded happy to make the change and noted it “seemed to really complete the arc in our movie.”

Audiences will get to see the scene in “Ant-Man” again in “Captain America: Civil War,” formerly known as “Captain America 3.” However, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige hinted it would be an alternate version of the scene. “It might be different takes, it might be different angles,” Feige told /Film. “Somebody brought up the comparison to the ‘Thor’ tag at the end of ‘Iron Man 2,’ which was material shot for the ‘Thor’ film, but we cut slightly differently.”

Despite the fact that Ant-Man didn’t appear in the post-credits scene, he’ll definitely appear in “Captain America: Civil War.” Rudd has already filmed his part.

“I just got done working on ‘Captain America 3,’” Rudd told Coming Soon. “That was a real thrill and supercool because all of the sudden I was standing amongst some Avengers, and it became real in a whole new way.”

“Ant-Man” is in theaters now, and “Captain America: Civil War” is scheduled to hit the big screen May 6, 2016.