Marvel Studios sadly did not bring a panel presentation this year to Comic-Con, a year where the film industry as a whole came with a smaller presence. This sad reality didn't mean that The Avengers and other Marvel movies would be missing entirely. Captain America: The Avenger was premiered here on Thursday and Marvel brought a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier-themed setup to the exhibition floor where they handed out posters and holding autograph sessions with some of the talent.

There's also of course, the talent at the show who, if involved with Marvel Studios in some way, cannot avoid the obligatory related questions. At the Attack The Block presentation for Screen Gems, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish were on panel and were posed a fan question about the status of the Ant-Man film.

Several years have gone by where we've repeatedly heard about drafts of scripts and eagerness from those involved for the Ant-Man project to move forward, but Cornish and Wright, who are writing Ant-Man together, have simply been working together on other projects and Marvel is waiting for the right time in their film schedule to release the solo character flick.

Wright revealed the good news that they had actually just handed in the latest Ant-Man script on Monday and that the studio was looking at it.

"We're very excited about it. We have some concept art and we really enjoy working on it."

Back in January, Edgar Wright returned to writing Ant-Man and in March we learned that the latest script draft was near completion, but it's been silent on the littlest Avenger front with Thor and Captain America taking the summer attention.

Looking at the bigger plan for Marvel, the studio canceled the lower budget adaptation of The Runaways so The Avengers sits alone as Marvel Studios' sole theatrical release of 2012, despite a plan to launch two summer blockbusters each year and eventually expand to more. 2013 however, already has lined up sequels to some of their established character solo films, namely Thor 2 and Iron Man 3, so could Ant-Man still be three years away or is there a chance Disney will have them push out three feature films for 2013, saving Ant-Man for a fall/holiday release?

That leaves 2014 for other potential sequels including one for The Avengers and what we hope is the launching of some other character titles that the Marvel family has been touting for years: Dr. Strange, Black Panther, Heroes for Hire, S.H.I.E.L.D., etc.

With another script draft in, and assuming that the Ant-Man movie gets the official greenlight from Marvel sometime between now and next summer when The Avengers hits theaters, the title role will likely be cast in that time frame. and Marvel can shoot an end-credits button or cameo role for said character in the team-up film.

The Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston and Stellan Skarsgard. It is of course written and directed by Joss Whedon, opening in theaters on May 4, 2012.

Check out our Official Comic-Con Page for all of Screen Rant's live coverage of SDCC 2011.

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