Despite Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ushering in Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the sequel’s reception has largely been mixed. This came as a surprise to writer Jeff Loveness, who is still proud of the work he’s put in despite its reception.
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Loveness — who wrote Quantumania and is also writing the upcoming ensemble film Avengers: The Kang Dynasty — noted that he was surprised by the poor reviews for the film. Following its premiere, the film debuted to a 48% score on movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (the second-lowest of any MCU film), with fans also criticizing the project on social media.
“To be honest, those reviews took me by surprise,” Loveness said. “I was in a pretty low spot … Those were not good reviews, and I was like, ‘What the … ?'” Loveness went on to note that he was “really proud” of what he had written, especially when it came to the storylines for Jonathan Majors and Michelle Pfeiffer.
“I’m really proud of what I wrote for Jonathan [Majors, who plays the villain Kang the Conqueror] and Michelle Pfeiffer [scientist Janet Pym],” stated Loveness. “I thought that was good stuff, you know? And so I was just despondent, and I was really sad about it.”
Despite the poor reviews, Loveness said he still went to the see the film in a movie theater, and what he saw surprised him. According to the writer, the audience in his showing were laughing, showing him that even though critics may have not liked it, the fans still had a good time.
“I went to [a showing], and an audience was laughing, and it was one of those Sullivan’s Travels, ‘watching the movie with the prisoners’ moments,” Loveness said.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now playing in movie theaters.
