Director-writer Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age of Ultron has earned more than $1 billion dollars and people are still buying tickets to see the Earth's Mightiest Heroes battle Ultron, the latest big bad who aims to wipe out humanity. As Whedon's sequel earns more and more money for Marvel Studios, the company is making sure fans get excited for the final chapter in Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ant-Man.
Director Peyton Reed's upcoming comic book movie - which stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas - will open in theaters mid-July, and the studio's doing what it can to make plenty of potential moviegoers well aware of its release date. Thanks to new trailers, TV spots, and posters, Marvel Studios is hoping even casual fans will want to purchase a ticket to Ant-Man's big (or should we say small?) cinematic debut.
Now, a new batch of images have been shared and they quite literally show the hero leaping into action.
If you've been following news about the movie, several of the images Marvel posted likely look familiar to you. That's because several of these were included in Empire's coverage of the movie. However, his group of photos does offer a few new looks at Rudd's superhero costume - including a more lighthearted one of him sticking out of the ground -as well as a picture of actor David Dastmalchian's character, Kurt.
Since 2008's Iron Man - which marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Marvel Studios has generated quite a large following, and its movies continue to make quite a lot of money at the box office. This means that Scott Lang's first film is very unlikely to be a total flop, despite the character often being considered a joke to casual fans. The whole situation with Edgar Wright walking away from the project because of "creative differences" was concerning to many Marvel loyalists, but as of right now, it's obvious the studio has a clear vision in mind and it has no intention of releasing a movie that won't at least offer a good amount of laughs and solid action, while also teasing its future movies and new characters. Now we'll just have to wait and see whether or not the story will be compelling and if it'll feel like an important addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Rudd will play a role - even it's just a small (pun fully intended) cameo - in next year's Captain America: Civil War, but Cap's third movie is also going to be the first appearance of the brand new live-action Spider-Man. But before the wall-crawler makes a proper debut in that movie, his existence will allegedly be teased in Reed's Ant-Man.
According to a new rumor, Ant-Man will incorporate "lots of" nods to both Spidey and Norman Osborn's company, Oscorp. One theory is Corey Stoll's character, Darren Cross, a.k.a. Yellowjacket, attempts to sell Norman's company some technology. Assuming that's what they go with and it's handled well, that approach would be a fitting way to offer some fan service and tease the Marvel Cinematic Universe's future without making outside characters complicate Ant-Man's narrative.
Ant-Man opens July 17, 2015, followed by Captain America: Civil War on May 6, 2016; Doctor Strange on November 4, 2016; Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5, 2017; Spider-Man on July 28, 2017; Thor: Ragnarok on November 3, 2017; Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 on May 4, 2018; Black Panther on July 6, 2018; Captain Marvel on November 2, 2018; Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 on May 3, 2019; and lastly (for now), Inhumans on July 12, 2019.
Source: Marvel