Why Luis was absent from Ant-Man 3

2022 wasn't the greatest year for the MCU, and Ant-Man 3 hasn’t given the franchise a promising start to 2023.

Many fans and critics haven’t liked Quantumania for multiple reasons. Some have complained that it had too much exposition, was heavily reliant on VFX that didn’t look as good, and then there was a monstrosity called MODOK. But another common complaint is that it tried to change too much by adding in a new cast instead of sticking to the old set of characters that worked for the past two movies.

For instance, Ant-Man 3 did not include Michael Peña’s Luis and the rest of the X-Cons gang involving David Dastmalchian’s Kurt and T.I.’s Dave. Peña’s Luis in particular has been great for the franchise, thanks to his epic narration. So, his absence wasn’t appreciated by many fans and director Peyton Reed has revealed why the X-Cons didn’t return to the franchise.

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Luis didn't return in Ant-Man 3 because of Quantum Travels

Luis in Ant-Man (Image via Marvel)

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Peyton Reed revealed that Peña’s Luis was never in the film as there was no space or reason for him to be included. The director said:

"There were no versions of this movie [with Luis]. There are a lot of characters in the movie. We obviously have our Lang, van Dyne and Pym family, but then we also introduced Kang, MODOK and all of our Freedom Fighter characters. So we had to make decisions early on about what stories we could tell and what stories we couldn’t tell."

The movie took place almost entirely in the Quantum Realm, so one could see that there was no place for Luis and his narrations. So unfortunately, Luis never had a shot at returning, but Reed did express his love for him and the other character as he continued:

"I love those characters. They were really, really fun and part of the Lang family, but as we got further and further into [development] and knew we wanted to bring the family into the Quantum Realm pretty early in the movie, it just didn’t make sense [to include Luis and co.]."

Fans, however, thought it would be nice to see Luis in some way, but the whole X-Cons group was replaced by the Freedom Fighters within the Quantum Realm.

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Quantumania’s drastic changes failed the film

Ant-Man 3 and Thor: Ragnarok (Image via Marvel)

Although the previous two Ant-Man movies have a relatively large fanbase, several believe they weren’t the greatest MCU movies of all time. So, the third Ant-Man outing needed a complete paradigm shift, which came through the Quantum Realm. Paul Rudd claimed that Quantumania was influenced a lot by Thor: Ragnarok, which changed the franchise completely.

Thor: Ragnarok also brought a drastic change to its cast as it left the likes of Jane and the others behind and shifted its focus from Earth to the cosmos. Similarly, Ant-Man 3 left the X-Cons and Scott’s ex-wife Maggie behind and shifted its focus entirely upon the Quantum Realm. However, in this case, things seem to have backfired for Ant-Man 3, as it isn't turning out to be the game changer that Thor: Ragnarok was.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently screening in theaters worldwide.