Captain America: Civil War Concept Art Reveals Scrapped Wasp Role

Screen Rant

Captain America: Civil War Concept Art Reveals Wasp's Scrapped Scene

By Chris Compendio

Published Nov 5, 2018

Marvel Studios concept artist Andy Park reveals an older piece of art that depicted the Wasp as fighting in Captain America: Civil War.

A key artist for Marvel Studios unveiled concept art for Captain America: Civil War that depicted the Wasp as fighting in the marquee airport battle sequence of the movie. The piece of art has Ant-Man and the Wasp teaming up against Hawkeye, showing where the pair's allegiance would have been with Iron Man in an earlier version of the film.

Civil War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely confirmed that Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), aka the Wasp, was indeed present in earlier drafts of the screenplay. Ultimately, the pair cut her out of the movie, with concerns that the Wasp had too similar a powerset to Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Ant-Man, and that they did not want to take away from the Wasp's debut as a title heroine in Ant-Man and the Wasp. With so many heroes already present in Civil War, the filmmakers likely also thought that the film would be crowded enough at that point.

The concept art, provided by Marvel Studios Director of Visual Development & Concept Artist Andy Park through Twitter, does contain some intriguing details about what this earlier version of Civil War could have been. The updated Ant-Man suit is consistent with what is seen in the final film, having more of a modern and digital aesthetic. While the Wasp is miniaturized, her suit does look to be somewhat the same from both of her film appearances.

Captain America Civil War Concept Art Ant-Man Wasp Hawkeye

Captain America Civil War Concept Art Ant-Man Wasp Hawkeye Detail

Curiously, the shrinking superhero duo appears to be fighting against Captain America's band of rebelling Avengers, fighting off Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Those familiar with the final movie will know that Lang instead fought for Steve Rogers rather than against. Markus and McFeely previously confirmed that a draft without Spider-Man had Tony Stark recruit Ant-Man. Also spotted in the background of the artwork are Cap facing off against Black Panther, Scarlet Witch providing support, and the Winter Soldier firing an assault rifle, though traditional lethal firearms were excluded from the final version of the film's battle.

Ultimately, the lack of the Wasp in Captain America: Civil War served the character quite well in her own film. Civil War already used up the Giant-Man reveal, denying Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed the opportunity to craft a reveal in his own films - taking away the Wasp's first scenes in action may have been too much to take from Reed. The backstory of Scott Lang fighting on Captain America's side, which largely lost the airport battle, also worked quite well for Reed's second film, as it created a rift between Lang and Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) for the former using the latter's technology in the scuffle. But with the ball back in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War writers Markus and McFeely's court for Avengers 4, MCU fans will have to wait and see just what they do with the Wasp after Ant-Man and the Wasp's shocking credits scenes.