[Editors Note: This article contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania]Collider can exclusively share new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania behind-the-scenes images showing how much VFX was needed to bring the Quantum Realm to life. Led by VFX Supervisors Malte Sarnes and Axel Bonami, Quantumania’s digital work included four MPC teams located in Adelaide, Montreal, Bangalore, and LA.
Every new Marvel Studios release tries to break fans’ expectations by taking us to unexpected places, such as alternate dimensions and alien planets. For Quantumania, the MPC teams had to imagine a subatomic universe by designing a version of the Microverse spanning over 40 kilometers in diameter and including 20 kilometers of Quantum Skies. The new VFX breakdown images help fans to understand how challenging it is to enhance each frame of a Marvel Studios production and why Quantumania demanded more than 1000 artists to work on over 800 shots.
While MPC released dozens of VFX breakdown photos, Collider got six exclusive frames that perfectly illustrated how much of what we see in Quantumania has been created by digital artists. For instance, two frames take us back to the last confrontation with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), when the Freedom Fighters marched through the city to depose its tyrannical ruler. The “before” image has multiple blue elements that VFX artists replace, while the second shows how different the Quantum Realm looks after we add some environment to each shot. We can see a similar approach to Janet van Dyne's (Michelle Pfeiffer) hut, where she worked with Kang before finding out who he really was.
Creating David Dastmalchian's Adorable Veb
The best exclusive images are focused on David Dastmalchian’s Veb, a pink blob that has quickly filled a hole we all had in our hearts. While we knew Dastmalchian voiced Veb, it’s hilarious to see the flesh-and-bone actor in a grey suit, hanging around with other cast members before being replaced by the fully-digital creature. Commenting on Quantumania’s VFX work, Production VFX Supervisor Jesse J. Chisholm said:
“MPC Adelaide was given the daunting task of presenting the first sequence of images in our film. This was our first look at the newly designed Quantum Realm. If our audience didn't buy this is as a real place, we knew our movie would fall on its face. The next undertaking was to create Kang's suit transformation and his ship, the Timesphere. Malte and his team once again perfectly integrated the plate-based photography and CGI to give our audience something tactile to bite into. The last piece of the puzzle was the creation of the Blighted Core and the following sequence on the Observation Deck. The Observation Deck scene required heavy storytelling in making our world feel dangerous, but also great restraint in world building allowing Scott and Cassie a moment of emotional connection.”
What Is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania About?
As the first movie in the MCU’s Phase 5, Quantumania was charged with introducing Kang as a villain worthy of replacing Thanos (Josh Brolin) as the MCU’s new big baddie. The movie also marks the live-action debut of fan-favorite villain MODOK (Corey Stoll), the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. Finally, Quantumania turns Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) into a heroine, teasing how Scott (Paul Rudd) might get replaced in the MCU. It’s a lot for a single movie to tackle, which might explain the lukewarm reception Quantumania got, which translated into unexpectedly low box office numbers for an MCU release.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently available in theaters. Check out all of the impressive VFX breakdown images below: