How Infinity War Is Affecting The Development Of Captain Marvel and Ant-Man And The Wasp

In the next few years, Marvel Studios has some very interesting scheduling planned for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only will they be releasing their first two-part blockbuster in the form of The Avengers: Infinity War, but both Ant-Man And The Wasp and Captain Marvel will be released between the two halves of the story. This is posing a unique challenge for screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and it’s one being sorted through with constant communication and parallel developments in story and casting.

I spoke with the writers at the Captain America: Civil War press event earlier this month, and it was while discussing their work on the upcoming Infinity War that they revealed the process of how what they’re doing is syncing up with what’s going on in Ant-Man And The Wasp and Captain Marvel. Markus described it as the duo being in "constant bugging mode," with the filmmakers behind those individual projects (like Peyton Reed, Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve) on their speed dial. Miming the kinds of conversations they’ve been having, Markus and McFeely said,

Christopher Markus: ‘Do you know yet? Do you know yet? Because I really need to know!’Stephen McFeely: ‘We have a few scenes that are sort of… it’ll look like this, but you need to cast somebody. We need to know what that story is more than we do now.’ It’s fun!Christopher Markus: It’s pretty ridiculous, frankly.

Speaking to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige later in the same day, I asked him the same question about the overlapping developments of The Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man And The Wasp and Captain Marvel. He downplayed the connection between the films a bit, saying that the sync up as much as all other Marvel movies do, but did confirm that there will be some stars of the Cinematic Universe who will simultaneously be working on two different productions. Said Feige,

I don’t know if it’s any more or less than we always do. There’s a great degree of overlap when it comes to the shooting schedules, which I don’t know how interested your readers are in that. There are people who will be filming two different movies at the same time. As little as possible, but that’s a necessity. But in terms of story overlap, no more or less than how we usually do it.

Joe and Anthony Russo’s epic Avengers: Infinity War adventure will kick off with Part 1 on May 4, 2018, and will be followed that same summer by Peyton Reed's Ant-Man And The Wasp on July 6th. Captain Marvel, which doesn't have a director attached just yet, will be the first Marvel Studios title of 2019, coming out on March 8th, and the Infinity War will come to a conclusion with Part 2 released on May 3, 2019. We couldn’t be more excited to see how it all unfolds and links, so be sure to stay tuned for plenty of updates in the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.

Latest