Michael Peña has insisted he has "no idea" if Ant-Man 3 will happen. The second Ant-Man movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp, opens in theaters this summer and finished filming in November last year. In a recent interview, however, Peña seemed to indicate that Ant-Man 3 is something that may have already been discussed and/or is being actively considered over at Marvel Studios.

Peña's Ant-Man 3 comments included him saying "I don’t know if [Marvel will] use me for the third movie, I still really don’t know." The actor has since walked those comments back a bit, admitting that he didn't mean to imply that he knows anything definite about the possibility of a third Ant-Man movie, either way.

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Speaking with USA Today, Peña emphasized that "I have no idea" about the potential for a third Ant-Man movie, adding that "If there is an Ant-Man 3, it would be great to be in it. That's all I said." He insisted that Marvel is extremely secretive, and that as a member of the Ant-Man supporting cast, he would be the last to know anything:

"I don't work at Marvel. I'm not part of the studio. And I don't have the money to fund the movie. I wish I had $150 million around, you know."

The actor also cracked a joke about the idea of either his character Luis or one of the other supporting players in the first Ant-Man movie claiming to have insider knowledge about Marvel Studios:

"It's like, one of the supporting (Ant-Man) characters would say, 'Yup, there’s going to be a third (movie).' Like I have the information, more than Kevin (Feige). That would be really, really funny."

Peña has a point. His character Luis may be a popular one, but he would hardly be part of Marvel's decision-making process. What's more, right now Marvel has much bigger fish to fry than Ant-Man 3. They've only just wrapped up production on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, and are beginning to plan the next wave of movies in their cinematic universe. Among the actively developing Marvel Cinematic Universe films right now are Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as well as a long-awaited Black Widow solo film.

It's true that Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige likes to have a long-term plan, though he and his collaborators have had to change their plans a number of times already. Marvel's deal with Sony to include Spider-Man as part of the MCU certainly affected the studio's film slate, and things are even more in flux now that Disney is purchasing the bulk of 21st Century Fox, gaining the movie rights to X-Men and Fantastic Four in the process. One imagines that Ant-Man 3 is a secondary concern for the comic book movie studio, what with everything else going on right now.

In his original interview, it's likely that Peña was simply assuming that the plan was to eventually make an Ant-Man movie trilogy, like what Marvel Studios has already done with such characters as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. And who knows? Peña's crack about Ant-Man 3 may yet prove to be more on the money than even he could have predicted.

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Source: USA Today

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