Marvel has a major problem on their hands, but it’s a good one: they have way too many sub-franchises within their cinematic universe. They already had to make room for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and a brand-new Spider-Man movie, but what about Ant-Man 2? Should the Paul Rudd-fronted film reach as high of highs as Guardians, the studio will likely move ahead with a sequel, but when might we see such a thing? The man behind the Marvel curtain, Kevin Feige, recently spoke about the matter, and, understandably, he’s as stumped as the rest of us.
Speaking with io9, the Marvel Studios head made it seem like his team is overwhelmed with trying to figure out whether to squeeze in another sequel or focus on the all-new Phase 3 line-up, which includes (in no particular order) Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, the two-part Infinity War, Inhumans, and Thor 3. With specific regards to Ant-Man 2, though, he’s not entirely sure when we might see it come to fruition. He said:
The answer is I don’t really know. We’re entering territory that’s an incredible problem to have, which is too many franchises to navigate. That’s a very very high class problem, and if we’re faced with that high class problem, we will try to figure out a solution in a way that allows us to produce the movies in the way we have.
At the end of the day, there are way too many characters populating the Marvel Cinematic Universe to give them all standalone films. That’s probably why we haven’t seen Black Widow, for example, get her own solo outing. (Though, we might have some additional thoughts on that front.) But her major role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the first step in making up for that lack. Elsewhere, Marvel is running into problems with developing more solo Hulk movies. We recently found out that, while the studio can produce these films, the distribution rights are out of their hands. We’ll have to see how Ant-Man is received by fans, but for now, at least, it’s too soon to tell whether Marvel will even offer the film a sequel with all that’s going on.
That’s not to say we’ve seen the last of Rudd’s Scott Lang. The character shows up again in Captain America: Civil War, along with two armies’ worth of characters for a Team Iron Man vs. Team Captain America blowout. Since Guardians is essentially it’s own little world that is physically separate from the rest of the heroes, it seems easier for Marvel to make more installments. Though, for a little guy like Ant-Man, we shouldn’t count our eggs just yet.
