'Ant-Man' Opening Scene Originally Featured Hank Pym Going To Panama To Retrieve Microfilm

“Ant-Man” reportedly was supposed to have an opening scene like a Bond movie. Director Peyton Reed said in his discussion with Cinema Blend that originally the film featured a standalone scene that showed Hank Pym going to Panama on a mission.

“It was basically a standalone sequence where you really did not see it was Hank Pym. He was retrieving some microfilm from this originally Cuban general and then it became a Panamanian general. … It really was designed in those early drafts to be almost like a Bond movie standalone scene in the beginning,” he said. Moreover, the scene did not feature Ant-Man as it was more of a invisible man’s sequence.

When asked why the scene was scrapped from the movie, Reed said that it was “tonally” different from the movie. The Pym scene was reportedly an individual adventure, which did not fit in the plot of the film. But the scene could be released as a separate entity.

“It felt like vestige of those earlier drafts, which as a standalone thing was really cool. We actually talked at one point about releasing like a standalone, Hank Pym as Ant-Man. Who knows if that will still happen?” he added.

The scene was reportedly deleted from the film during the editing process, and in the current version the film opens with young Hank Pym quitting his job at S.H.I.E.L.D.

“Ant-Man” tells the story of a petty thief, Scott Lang, who accidently stumbles upon the Ant-Man suit. He is trained by Pym to use the suit to plot a heist against evil. Paul Rudd stars as Ant-Man/Lang along with Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas. The film released in theaters on July 17.