Ant-Man DVD: 10 Things We Learned From Director's Commentary

4. Janet Van Dyne Was Never A Big Presence In The Original Script

According to Rudd and Reed, Hope's mother was never a huge part of Edgar Wright's original draft, but was instead brought in when the star and his buddy came in for the oft-mentioned rewrite. It was correctly surmised that Hank and Hope's relationship required an extra dimension, which explains why the film now has the element of Janet's sacrifice, and Hank's desire to protect Hope from the same fate by distancing her from the Wasp technology. It works in the film's favour to have the stuff with Janet; it's world-building, it's good fan service and more than anything we get that really cool, retro action sequence where Wasp goes sub-atomic to stop the wayward nuke her and Hank are trying to stop. The icing on the cake is Evangeline Lily's acting when we finally see her reaction to the story of her mother's self-sacrifice, her face in floods of tears. It's a well-earned emotional beat that we wouldn't have had if Rudd and co. hadn't tinkered with the screenplay, and further fuel to the fire that suggests we never really needed Edgar Wright anyway...