Yellowjacket Won’t Be Returning In Ant-Man 2

Darren Cross, aka Yellowjacket, will not appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Established as a one-time protégé of Hank Pym’s in the 2015 original, Cross spent a majority of the film trying to perfect his own shrinking suit, which he could then sell to a variety of terrorist organizations. Yellowjacket was, at the time of Ant-Man’s release, the latest in an ever-growing line of mirror villains (antagonists who have the same powers as the titular hero). This led to some visually-inventive and comedic set pieces as Ant-Man and Yellowjacket battled.

Given that Yellowjacket seemingly died at the end of the first film, it was never expected he’d return for a follow-up. However, comic book movies have a habit of bringing dead characters back to life, so there was at least an outside chance Darren Cross could return to the fold for Ant-Man and the Wasp. But now, it’s officially been confirmed he’s nowhere to be found in the screenplay.

Related: Ant-Man and the Wasp Set Visit Report

Screen Rant had the opportunity to visit the Ant-Man and the Wasp set, where we spoke with specialty costumes supervisor Ivo Coveney. According to him, there’s no Yellowjacket in the movie:

In the script that I’ve seen him, he’s not in our film. I don’t know whether we see him again at any point.

Yellowjacket Won’t Be Returning In Ant-Man 2

Fans may recall that at the end of Ant-Man, Scott Lang went sub-atomic and damaged Yellowjacket’s suit to the point that it collapsed into itself and crushed all of Cross’ limbs. Granted, it is established people can return from the Quantum Realm (Wasp is all about saving Janet van Dyne from that dimension), but it would be a bit of a stretch to say Cross survived his fight with Scott. There’s also no real storytelling reason that requires Yellowjacket to be back for the sequel; he’s served his purpose in the overall narrative, and it’s time for Ant-Man and the Wasp to face a new adversary. This time out, they’ll be squaring off against Ghost, who is one of the more mysterious aspects in marketing so far.

As for the notion of possibly seeing Darren Cross down the line in Phase 4 and beyond, that seems highly unlikely. With the exception of fan-favorite Loki, main MCU villains typically see their time in the franchise end after a single installment. Perhaps things would be a bit different if Yellowjacket was an integral part of Ant-Man’s success, but he isn’t regarded as one of the MCU’s strongest villains, so the filmmakers might be less inclined to try to bring him back (see: chatter about Michael B. Jordan in Black Panther 2). Of course, Darren Cross was a perfectly serviceable villain in Ant-Man, but it looks like everyone has moved past him.