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KNOW YOUR ELMORE LEONARD

As Ant-Man, the Wasp and Hank try to rescue Janet from the Quantum Realm, they don’t just encounter one villain … or two, and the baddies aren’t motivated by global domination or genocide (ahem, looking at you Thanos).

“The main classic villain is Ghost,” Broussard says. “But she doesn’t want to take over the world. She has her own thing that she’s after and Scott, Hank and Hope are in her way. So the film is influenced by the crime novels of Elmore Leonard … There are all these colourful characters in this poppy underworld and they all have their own agendas and they’re all clashing in the middle. No one is a bad guy to anyone else; they’re just in each other’s way.”

“It’s a chase movie in a way,” Reed adds, “and all these people — from our heroes to the villain to the most street-level people are after the same thing.”

DON’T CALL IT ANT-MAN 2

On the day we visited, Wasp and Ghost were trading blows in a fight scene that sees the two women battling over a mysterious case that will help our heroes in their search for Janet. But Broussard and Reed say that Ant-Man and the Wasp is very much the story of two people.

“They are co-leads and we’re approaching this as 50-50 in both story and the action,” Broussard says.

“When I was reading the script a thought that kept coming back to me was, ‘When do we get to see them fight together?’ I wanted to see that,” Lilly chimes in as her stunt-double steps into her scene.

“It’s got elements of a buddy picture and it’s got elements of a really messed-up romantic comedy,” Reed adds. “But this movie is called Ant-Man and the Wasp. It’s not Ant-Man 2, and Wasp is not a supporting character … they are hero partners and they’ve got to learn to work together.”