Peyton Reed is returning to direct Ant-Man 3, which is now officially happening. Marvel Studios has closed the door on the Infinity Saga and are now in the midst of working on Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and beyond. They announced their plans through 2021 this summer at San Diego Comic-Con, including a busy slate of shows that will be exclusively made for Disney+. But, that presentation also ended with Feige teasing that many other sequels to popular franchises are in various stages of development and will be made.

One of the franchises not mentioned by Feige though was Ant-Man, which has seen two installments hit theaters to this point. Starring Paul Rudd as Scott Lang aka Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne aka Wasp, the franchise most recently returned to the big screen with Ant-Man and the Wasp last summer. Both entries in the franchise performed admirably at the box office, leaving many to wonder what the future holds for these characters.

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Thanks to a new report from THR, wheels are in motion on Ant-Man 3. They are reporting that director Peyton Reed is signed on to direct a third entry in the franchise. Reed directed the previous two installments after taking over following the departure of Edgar Wright. Rudd is expected to return to star with production reportedly planned to begin in late 2020 or early 2021 for a possible 2022 release date.

News of Ant-Man 3 happening makes it the second film since Marvel's initial announcement at SDCC to pick up momentum. The studio previously set Black Panther 2 for a May 2022 release date during D23. Now, Ant-Man 3 appears to be the choice to help fill out Marvel's 2022 slate. They have February and July release dates already secured for unannounced films, so the Ant-Man franchise's familiarity with the July window points to this being when Ant-Man 3 will hit theaters based on this report.

At this point though, details on what the story of Ant-Man 3 is going to be have yet to be revealed. Based on the ending of Avengers: Endgame, the film could center around Scott, Hope, and Cassie Lang (Emma Fuhrmann). It is also difficult to believe that Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer would not return as Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, respectively. Producer Stephen Broussard previously teased that Ant-Man 3, if it happened, would explore more of the Quantum Realm though, so fans can expect it to become an even larger part of the MCU in this new film. Now that reports are out there that Ant-Man 3 is happening, it may not be too long before we learn much more about what it can do.

MORE: How MCU Phase 4 Will Be Shaped By The Quantum Realm

Source: THR

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