Ant-Manwas a pleasant surprise for many fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe last year. After a lot of uncertainty during the production phase, it ultimately wound up being very well received and for a property nobody outside of big-time comic book fans knew much about, it did very well at the box office. That being the case, Marvel has a sequel in the works and directorPeyton Reedrecently opened up aboutAnt-Man and the Wasp.
Reedwas at the Saturn Awards recently, whereAnt-Manpicked up a big win for Best Comic-To-Film Motion Picture. Speaking withModern Myth Mediain an interview during the awards,Reedtalked quite a bit about the sequel toAnt-Man, and specifically talked a lot about how Hope Van Dyne, played byEvangaline Lilly, will factor in as The Wasp in the new movie. Here is whatReedhad to say.
“It’s something we’re excited about. For me as a comic nerd, I always thought of Ant-Man andWaspas a team and that’s a lot of what the second movie is really about is how they work together, what their personal and professional relationships are like. To show her finally fully formed in this movie is really exciting. We really get to introduce this character into that universe. I mean we’ve introduced the character, but we haven’t seen her with her full power set and everything, so to me she’s not a supporting character in this movie. It’s every bit as much her movie as it is Scott Lang’s.”
Lillywas inAnt-Manbut never put on the costume, and theWasp costumewasn’t even revealed until the post-credit scene in the movie.Lillydid prove that she can hold her own in a fight though, and with the costume and powers it will give her, it should be pretty interesting.ReedAlso addressedPaul Rudd’s character Scott Lang, who is a big-time fugitive given what happened inCaptain America: Civil War.Reedacknowledged that since Lang was always a fugitive, it shouldn’t affect things too much, but the impact of what happened inCivil Warwill definitely be felt and had to be taken into account while writingAnt-Man and the Wasp.
“Well he’s a fugitive in most of the firstAnt-Man movie. He’s just a bigger fugitive now. I think that’s one of the fun things and challenges about the Marvel movies for us, for the directors and for the writers, is you do have to sort of consider what happened in the previous movies in terms of your jumping-off point for those characters. It’s something we talked a lot about early on and we definitely have stuff figured out, so there will be some big leaps forward.”
Reedseems to have a pretty good grip on what they are looking to do with theAnt-Man sequel, and it is probably a good thing that he has a proper amount of time to plan this time around.Reedof course had to step in at the last minute afterEdgar Wrightleft the project over creative differences with Marvel, after having been attached to the project for years prior to exiting. Many fans, and even Marvel creatives likeJoss Whedon, were very upset whenWrightdepartedAnt-Man, but most seemed very happy with whatReedwas able to accomplish, and the Saturn Award seems to speak to that.
Ant-Manmade a very respectable $519 million at the worldwide box office last year, which is a bit low for a Marvel movie, but really great considering the circumstances surrounding the movie and the nature of the character and the property in general.Ant-Manalso appeared inCivil Warand proved that he could be a part of the largerAvengersensemble, which is very good for theMCUmoving forward.Ant-Man and the Waspis set for release on July 01, 2025.
