Two weeks after announcing that this year’s sleeper hit ‘Ant-Man’ was getting a sequel in the form of 2018’s ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’, Marvel Studios is in negotiations with original director Peyton Reed to return for the second film. Stars Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lily are also due to return.
Due to ‘Ant-Man”s soft opening, it wasn’t always a given that the film would get a sequel but it was announced as part of Marvel’s Phase 3. The film which had Marvel’s second lowest opening weekend has gone on to make $178 million domestically, making it one of the year’s top ten movies. After opening in China this past weekend, its international box office rings up to $455 million.
Helping to push the popularity of the lead character, Rudd’s Ant-Man will appear in next year’s highly anticipated ‘Captain America: Civil War’ in which he takes sides in the feud between Captain America and Iron Man. (Scott Lang will be on Team Cap.) It was decided that Lily would not appear in ‘Civil War’ as The Wasp, saving that momentous introduction for her/their own movie.
In addition to ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’, Marvel shuffled the dates of previously announced films. ‘Black Panther’ starring Chadwick Boseman is moving up to February 16, 2018 from its prior July 6 date and ‘Captain Marvel’ was pushed back to March 8, 2019 instead of November 2, 2018.
Marvel also scheduled three mystery movies for 2020. The lack of mention of the previously announced ‘Inhumans’ caused rumors to spread that the film had been scrapped, but Marvel has since stated that the release date for that film is undecided at this point.
Did you enjoy ‘Ant-Man’? Are you glad to see a sequel is on its way and that Reed may return to direct it?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
