_from_Marvel%27s_Ant-Man_001.jpg){kind=link}
Hope is not amused it took this long.
A little less than a year after the rest were announced, we have yet another addition to Phase 3: Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne will be back in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
When Kevin Feige first revealed the then-nine movies that were to make up the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a sequel to Ant-Man was mysteriously lacking. Many assumed Marvel simply didn't have enough faith in the movie to give them a sequel to far in advance. Numerous controversies surrounding the film - from initial director Edgar Wright's less-than-amicable departure from the project to a different take on Janet van Dyne that some prematurely called "fridging" - combined with Avengers: Age of Ultron hogging the spotlight prior to the movie's release held Marvel back from doing that much promotion for Ant-Man, too.
Even though the movie is the lowest-grossing movie from Phase 2 both domestically and internationally (src), Ant-Man performed about as well as Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor. Perhaps Marvel thinks this about what they should expect out of new franchises, and that Doctor Strange and all the other new franchises they're starting in Phase 3 will do about the same. Perhaps they are really confident that Ant-Man will see the similar boost those characters got after seeing him alongside the other Avengers (in Scott's case Captain America: Civil War, in Hope's hopefully the Avengers: Infinity War - Part I).
The movie will be released on July 6, 2018, taking the release date previously held by Black Panther. That movie's release has been pushed up a few months to February 16th. Interestingly, Marvel also moved the release of Captain Marvel from November 2018 to March 8, 2019 for no readily apparent reason. Perhaps Marvel is just more confident that their movies will play better earlier in the year than later. Perhaps their bosses at Disney wants to make sure everyone's watching a Star Wars movie during the Holidays. Who knows. Three untitled movies have also been scheduled for 2020.
Wasp will be the first female superhero to see her name in the title of a theatrically released film based on Marvel Comics since 2005's Elektra. Warner Bros.' Wonder Woman movie starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine will beat Marvel to the punch of having the first superhero movie with a female hero's name in the title since that same movie. This will also be the first theatrically released superhero to have two superheroes named in its title since 1997's Batman & Robin. Hopefully this one turns out better than that one!
So what does everyone want to see out of Scott and Hope's next adventure? Feel free to share your thoughts below.
(via Marvel.com)
UPDATE 18 Oct 15: Remember how I said Ant-Man was the Phase 2's weakest performer internationally, and that its box office was right between Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger? Well, there's a problem with that I wasn't aware of until now - it didn't come out in China until this past weekend. It had the second biggest opening weekend of any Marvel movie there, behind only Age of Ultron, and pulled ahead of Thor's worldwide gross. Maybe the little guy isn't the runt of Phase 2 after all. (via Forbes)
| Like this? Let us know! |