After the disappointing run of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 4, fans held out a lot of hope for Phase 5’s first film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Unfortunately, the Paul Rudd-starrer failed to impress the fans and critics despite having a major villain and left everyone worrying about the superhero universe.
Luckily, there was a silver lining to the whole situation as the film introduced us to an absolutely adorable character – Veb, a slimy creature with a gleeful personality. However, the character, played by David Dastmalchian, looked a little different before than what was seen in the film and even had a badass, slime-shooting gun as a weapon!
Ant-Man 3’s Favorite Character Was Supposed to Be Different
There were a lot of interesting characters in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, including the giant floating head with baby limbs, M.O.D.O.K, played by Corey Stoll. But the character that stood out the most to us was Veb.
Concept artist, Jerad S. Marantz, recently took to his Instagram to share the work he did on Ant-Man 3, designing the citizens of the Quantum Realm and the freedom fighters. In his post, Marantz talked about how he pitched the idea of a “Slime guy” and how the studio ended up loving it.
In the photos shared by him, we can see the design for the character that shoots his own slime for his vacuum gun. Marantz stated that this look was as far as he could take the pink slimy guy before the studio evolved it to become Veb.
“I pitched the idea of a slime guy and it went over well. I started with an initial sketch and got to take him this far. The idea was really fun. Basically the character shoots his own slime and [it] crawls back to him. His weapon is a combination vacuum and gun. I’m pretty sure this guy ended up becoming Veb in the movie. There was an incredible team on this show and it looks like the character evolved beyond my time on the project.”
Check out his post below:
View this post on Instagram
Veb was one of the best characters to have come out of the Ant-Man franchise and we are desperately hoping we get to see him again in the future!
David Dastmalchian Talks about Playing Veb
David Dastmalchian was already a part of the Ant-Man franchise before Veb came along. The actor has played the role of Kurt, a Russian ex-con, in the films but left it all behind to take over the new role.
As it turns out, playing Veb was just as much fun as watching him on the screen. In an interview with Marvel.com, Dastmalchian opened up about what it was like taking over the role of the adorable character and how he believes he went beyond director Peyton Reed’s expectations with the job.
“Veb is life…Veb is love…I truly believe that Peyton [Reed] got what he wanted with this character. To me, that’s the most satisfying feeling as an actor — when you feel like you’ve helped bring the vision that the director and the writer had for a character to life, and hopefully, even showed them some things that they didn’t see coming.
And secondly, for all of the fans and all of the people I’ve gotten to watch this film with so far and to hear the joy and the emotional reaction that they have to Veb. To walk out of the theater with my two kids and have them tell me that Veb is now their favorite — is just one of those gifts that you just savor.”
Dastmalchian continued to say that he got into character almost immediately recalling how he found Veb’s voice and mannerisms in a hotel room.
“I found Veb’s voice immediately. I started to just walk… I was in a hotel, and I started doing Veb’s wiggle walk, and I started moving around, and I shared that with Peyton, who shared it with Jeff, and they said, this is exactly where we want to go with this character.”
Despite having done roles in projects like Prisoners, The Dark Knight, Dune, and so on, Dastmalchian went ahead to admit that playing Veb was one of the most joyful acting experiences of his life.
Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania is available to stream on Disney+.
Source: Instagram | Jerad S. Marantz
