Shadowing Practice: The Original Plans for Kang in Quantumania - Learn English Speaking with Video
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What if Ant -Man and the Wasp Quantumania ended on a cliffhanger, with Kang actually escaping, and Scott and Hope being stranded in the Quantum Realm?
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Additionally, what if MODOK was actually terrifying, and still used the Yellow Jacket suit as an exoskeleton?
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And what if Bill Murray's Lord Krylar played a much larger role in the movie?
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Believe it or not, all of these things almost happened.
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So to find out how we went from that to the movie we got,
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let's dive in and take a look at what could have been Quantumania.
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The first two
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Ant -Man movies had a very specific role in the MCU.
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Both were released in the aftermath of massive
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Avengers films and functioned as lighter, smaller -scale palette cleansers.
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After Age of Ultron, we got
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Ant -Man, and after
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Infinity War, we got
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Ant -Man and the Wasp.
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They were heist comedies, family stories, and a breather from the end -of -the -world stakes dominating the rest of the franchise.
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But for the third film, director Peyton Reed wanted to go bigger.
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He didn't want
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Ant -Man 3 to feel like another comedic detour between more important chapters.
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He wanted it to feel like an Avengers -level event.
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And to do that, he believed Scott Lang needed an Avengers -level villain.
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Enter Kang.
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However, for writer
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Jeff Loveness, the key was to differentiate
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Kang from Thanos, and not just repeat the same beats.
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Because Kang is a character who exists across time, Loveness didn't want to introduce him at the beginning of his rise.
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He was more interested in meeting
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Kang after everything had already gone wrong.
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He compared it to Napoleon.
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Not the victorious
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Napoleon conquering Italy, but the defeated
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Napoleon in exile.
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The man who once seemed unstoppable, now trapped, humiliated and looking for a way back.
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Loveness argued that it was more humanizing to show a Kang who had been defeated, pointing to how guys like Alexander the Great
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or Julius Caesar are defined just as much by their defeats as they are by their victories.
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Loveness also described
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Kang as the Great Gatsby of the multiverse, a man obsessed with reclaiming what he lost.
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According to Loveness, earlier drafts of Quantumania included even more of Kang's backstory.
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But as the movie developed, some of those details were cut with the idea that they would eventually be explored in Avengers The Kang Dynasty.
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This worked for Loveness since he liked the idea of having this incredible backstory for the character
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that is slowly revealed as we get to know him, pointing to Darth Vader's backstory in Star Wars being revealed over the course of three films.
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And if the leaked
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Kang Dynasty script is to be believed, that backstory would have made him a much more tragic figure, as it explored
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Kang's failure to save the woman he loved and their child.
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However, at one point, Loveness wrote
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Kang as more of a loser, and even somewhat goofy, to match the comedic tone of the previous two
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Ant -Man films.
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But once he saw
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Major's debut in the Loki finale, he decided to go full tilt with the tortured supervillain version of Kang from the Silver Age.
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However, one of the biggest criticisms of Quantumania was that
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Kang, the next
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Avengers -level threat, was easily defeated in his first big -screen appearance by whom many consider to be the weakest Avenger, Ant -Man.
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After spending the entire movie establishing that
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Kang is this terrifying multiversal threat, unlike anything that Scott Lang has ever faced, Ant -Man and the Wasp kill him although,
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spoiler alert, he's not dead, and then simply return home through a portal opened by Cassie.
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And while Scott does have a brief moment of panic where he wonders if killing
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Kang may have actually unleashed something much worse, the movie ultimately plays it as a joke, as Scott trucks it off,
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keeps smiling, and the entire family gets to walk away with a happy ending.
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However, the original ending wouldn't have done this.
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It would have left the film on a genuine cliffhanger.
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In this version, which was actually shot, Scott is still left behind in the quantum realm to face Kang alone.
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After Kang absolutely brutalizes him, Hope comes back for him.
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But instead of defeating him, Kang turns the tables and escapes, leaving Scott and Hope stranded in his place.
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Right after they realize they're trapped, Scott and Hope embrace, as Scott asks the obvious question, why did she come back?
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Hope explains that when she was pulled into the Probability Storm, she saw every other version of herself, including every life she could have lived.
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And after seeing all of them, she realized there wasn't a single version of her life she wanted if Scott wasn't in it.
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And speaking of the probability storm, originally it was a little longer and more psychological too, with a giant, Cronenberg -inspired,
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man -sized ant that would have been done practically by Stan Winston Studios and voiced by Werner Herzog.
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The ant would have tormented Scott, tearing into him over how weak and insignificant he really was.
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According to Loveness, it even had the line, All men are ants, but these ants are not men.
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The ant also would have called Scott father, giving the whole thing this bizarre island of Dr. Moreau quality,
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like some warped creature created from Scott's own fears and failures.
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Anyway, back to the original ending.
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Back on Earth, Janet, Hank, and Cassie are forced to process the horrifying reality that Scott and Hope didn't make at home.
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Hank tries to steady the family, assuring Janet and Cassie that they'll find a way to bring them back.
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But the emotional way to the ending rests with Cassie, who has now lost her father to the very realm she helped to reopen.
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Meanwhile, Scott and Hope look over the vast alien landscape of the Quantum Realm, realizing they may be trapped there indefinitely.
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Hope reassures Scott that their family will be okay, and more importantly, that they have to trust them to find a way back.
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Then she puts her faith in Cassie, telling Scott that Cassie will know what to do.
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And then came the original post -credits scene, which would have driven that idea home even harder.
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Instead of immediately cutting to the Council of Kings,
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the film reportedly ended with Cassie back on Earth desperately trying to find a way to rescue her father and hope.
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Sitting in front of a computer, she runs simulation after simulation, searching for any possible route back to the quantum realm.
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But as Cassie keeps running these simulations, something finally catches her eye.
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We don't know if it's a signal, a doorway, a Kang variant, a glitch in the multiverse, or something even stranger hiding inside the quantum realm.
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All we know is that Cassie spots something mysterious on the screen, and as her eyes go wide, the film would have cut to black.
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However, after the film's entire plot leaked onto the internet, Marvel reshot the ending one month before the film was released.
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The reasoning though may not have been because of the plot leak.
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As Loveness said that they realized that by stranding Scott yet again in the quantum realm,
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they'd just be copying the exact same ending from the second film.
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The other major villain who went through a pretty dramatic evolution was MODOK.
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Early designs for the character were far more sinister than what ended up on screen.
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The most interesting version came from concept artist Alexei Bricklot, whose take had MODOK emerging out of the yellow jacket suit itself.
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Instead of Darren Cross simply becoming a goofy floating head, the yellow jacket suit would have been repurposed into a massive, monstrous exoskeleton around him.
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That version immediately plays less like a farce
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and more like the logical nightmare of what happened to him at the end of the first Ant -Man.
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However, Loveness ultimately took the character in the opposite direction.
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As he put it, it was basically impossible for him to take a giant, dumb head seriously.
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So rather than try to make M .O .D .O .K terrifying, he leaned into the absurdity.
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Loveness based him partly on Frank Grimes from The Simpsons,
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a bitter, deeply insecure, loose canon who feels like the universe has humiliated him while everyone else keeps moving on.
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Lord Krylar was another character Loveness introduced in the film, wanting to find the most obscure character possible who happened to exist in the Quantum Realm.
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They eventually landed on Krylar.
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In the final film we learn that Janet had a romantic history with Lord Krylar, the Quantum Realm aristocrat played by Bill Murray.
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After learning this, Hank reveals that Janet wasn't the only one who moved on during their 30 years apart.
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While she was trapped inside the quantum realm hank had a
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brief fling with a woman named linda to play linda
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and what would likely have been a flashback would have been stifler's mom herself
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and white lotus star jennifer coolidge and
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while loveness did speak to coolidge about doing the cameo over
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zoom ultimately the idea was scrapped lord krylar also originally played
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a much larger role in the movie one deleted scene saw him shove an unknown alien off a cliff
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and according to actress katie o 'brien murray also shot a whole space pursuit sequence
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that ended with krylar somehow winding up with Kang and getting arrested.
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Ultimately he would have ended up locked away with Juntora.
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The freedom fighter Cassie later breaks out of the quantum prison and allegedly Krylar's arc may have gone even further than that.
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It's rumored that he was originally going to turn on Kang and join the rebellion,
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raising an army of humanoid aliens from the quantum realm to help fight back against the conqueror.
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However, Bill Murray was hit with a number of sexual assault allegations before the film came out, which may have been the reason why
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Marvel reduced his role in the film.
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So what went wrong?
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At the time, Marvel clearly intended this to be the true launchpad for Kang as the next major MCU villain.
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Jeff Loveness wasn't just writing Quantumania, he had also been hired to write
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Avengers The Kang Dynasty, meaning the threads introduced here were supposed to continue directly into the next major crossover film.
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But then Quantumania came out, and the reaction was not what Marvel wanted.
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The film underperformed critically and commercially, and one of the most common complaints was that
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Kang didn't come across like the next Thanos.
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Now to be fair, that was partly by design.
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Loveness was actively trying to differentiate
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Kang from Thanos by humanizing him, introducing him after a major defeat and presenting him as a fallen conqueror desperate to reclaim what he lost.
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But the risk of introducing
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Kang that way is that the MCU's first real glimpse of its new big bad didn't feel all that big or bad.
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Instead of leaving the movie feeling like
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Marvel had just unleashed its next final boss,
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audiences watched the defeated version of Kang get beat yet again in his first major big screen appearance by Ant -Man,
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the comic relief of the MCU.
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So while the idea may have been interesting on paper,
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the results seemed to deflate enthusiasm for Kang right when Marvel needed audiences to buy into him the most.
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Then came the much bigger complication, Jonathan Major's legal issues, as Disney was suddenly handed a massive public relations nightmare.
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Behind closed doors, Marvel was forced into a frantic debate.
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Do they simply recast the role and use the multiverse as a convenient excuse, or do they scrap the character entirely?
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Ultimately, the studio decided on the latter.
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Fans weren't embracing
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Kang like they did Thanos, and Major's legal troubles basically were the nail in the coffin.
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From there, Loveness and his Kang Dynasty script were shelved, while Marvel pivoted to Doctor Doom.
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All of this makes Quantumania one of the weirdest what could have been stories
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Marvel has ever produced.
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Because it's not just a movie full of deleted scenes and alternate ideas,
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it's a movie designed to launch an entire era of Marvel storytelling that the studio ultimately walked away from.
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Thanks for watching everybody and don't forget to like and subscribe for more of Hollywood's untold stories and unmade movies.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “The Original Plans for Kang in Quantumania”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Kang, Scott, loveness, ant, film. This video has 149 sentences and 2078 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:32. The speaker talks fast, about 218 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 75% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| quantum noun | /ˈkwɑntəm/ | The total amount of something; quantity. |
| trap noun | /tɹæp/ | A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body. |
| hank noun | /ˈhæŋk/ | A coil or loop of something, especially twine, yarn, or rope. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| jacket noun | /ˈd͡ʒæk.ɪt/ | A piece of clothing worn on the upper body outside a shirt or blouse, often waist length to thigh length. |
| leak noun | /liːk/ | A crack, crevice, fissure, or hole which admits water or other fluid, or lets it escape. |
| simulation noun | /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/ | Something that simulates a system or environment in order to predict actual behaviour. |
| villain noun | /ˈvɪl.ən/ | A vile, wicked person. |
| script noun | /skɹɪpt/ | A writing; a written document. |
| explore verb | /ɪkˈsploɹ/ | To examine or investigate something systematically. |
| partly adverb | /ˈpɑɹtli/ | In part, or to some degree, but not completely. |
| delete verb | /dɪˈliːt/ | To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. |
| nightmare noun | /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ | A very unpleasant or frightening dream. |
| embrace verb | /ɛmˈbɹes/ | To clasp (someone or each other) in the arms with affection; to take in the arms; to hug. |
| probability noun | /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/ | The state of being probable. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| come across verb | To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition. | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| look over verb | To check quickly; to make a brief or cursory visual inspection of. | |
| walk away from verb | To abandon or leave; to shun; to refuse. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being stranded · were released · had been defeated |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has ever faced · has now lost · has humiliated |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | man who once · version, which was · one who moved |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 16 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, wasn't, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thread /ˈθɹɛd/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, aftermath /ˈæf.tɚˌmæθ/, breather /ˈbɹiː.ðə(ɹ)/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: simulation /ˌsɪm.jəˈleɪ.ʃn̩/, differentiate /dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, assure /əˈʃʊɹ/
- Long words — get the stress right: probability /ˌpɹɑ.bəˈbɪl.ə.ti/, differentiate /dɪf.əˈɹɛn.ʃi.eɪt/, evolution /ˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n/, psychological /ˌsaɪ.kəˈlɑː.d͡ʒɪ.kl̩/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like quantum, trap, hank.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.