Director Peyton Reed Talks About Janet Van Dyne's Evolution in ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

Michelle Pfeiffer made her big MCU debut in Ant-Man and The Wasp, and there were some things that happened with her character that I wasn't expecting. Those things that were revealed about her also made me wonder how they would play out in the future films of the MCU.

For those of you who haven't seen Ant-Man and The Wasp yet, you might want to steer clear of this because I do get into some spoiler territory. So...

After Hank Pym recuses Janet from the Quantum Realm, where she has been trapped for the past 30 years, it's revealed that this place has changed her. I mean, if you're trapped in a place for so long with no one around, of course you're not going to come back the same person. But then there's also the physical aspect of change. Not just in age, but there is a power in the Quantum Realm that transformed her in a way that gave super-like powers. 

Those powers were displayed when she temporarily fixed what was wrong with Ghost. That was probably the tip of the iceberg of what Janet is capable of with these powers, but Peyton Reed explains that although these powers are a big deal, Janet has evolved in other terms as well, like what it means to really be a hero. During an interview with CinemaBlend, Reed explained:

"She's evolved down there. I like the idea that maybe in Hope's mind she's going to learn how to fight and how to be a hero from her mom, but what her mom really is ultimately going to teach her is that there are other ways, right? We only sort of dispense a certain amount of information about what's happened to Janet in the Quantum Realm by design, but maybe one of those things is, in terms of how she's evolved, is a larger perspective on what it could mean to be a hero."

I liked that she ended up being a more evolved being and that she approached Ghost with compassion instead of anger. I imagine that those other powers she displayed will be played with a little more later on at some point in the MCU. Perhaps in Avengers 4? Maybe she's so evolved that she will be able to bring herself back to life!? We'll just have to wait and see!

Reed goes on to talk about how they wanted to handle Janet's aging process because the Quantum realm is to supposed to defy the laws of space and time. This is a big discussion that took place with the creative team.

"There was a lot of discussion early on about, 'Will they find Janet? If so, is she young? Is she old? Has she evolved? Has she not evolved?'... I liked the idea of her aging normally, even though there are elements of space and time that are different in the Quantum Realm. It just didn't made sense to me visually that Hank Pym goes down and he's with a [younger] woman. Basically I liked the idea of this being a generational hero's story, that we have Scott and Hope, and then we have Hank and Janet - and it really is about family. And I also just liked the idea that it's a different thing in the MCU to have these legacy heroes, and that they're age appropriate. That just made more sense for our movie."

I liked the direction that they took it with the age because it really would have been a little weird if she didn't age. It makes sense that she appropriately aged over time for Hank's sake. 

What did you think about how Janet Van Dyne was handled in the film?