Marvel’s Ant-Man has had quite the troubled year, thanks to the controversial exit of director Edgar Wright, who – after a lengthy search – was replaced by Bring It On and Down with Love helmer Peyton Reed. As it stands now, Ant-Man is the odd man out in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how (or if) it ties into the rest of the Phase Three slate remains unclear.
That being said, Starlog has posted an Ant-Man rumor that, if true, places Marvel’s tiniest Avenger in a very interesting place in the MCU, and brings back a character that’s been unfortunately lost in the shuffle of the ever-expanding cinematic universe. According to the report, Ant-Man will take place concurrently with Avengers: Age of Ultron and help lead right into the events of the next big screen team-up, Captain America: Civil War.Â
Ant-Man will be largely self-contained in nature, with the majority of its tie-ins taking place via flashbacks focusing on the 1960s versions of Howard Stark (John Slattery), Arnim Zola, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Alexander Pierce (who was played by Robert Redford in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). This rumor, however, claims that Pym will have a run-in with a “young military hot-head by the name of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross,” who MCU fans will remember was last seen in The Incredible Hulk, played by William Hurt.
As the MCU has grown, it’s left The Incredible Hulk – a film I’ve always found extremely underrated – in its rearview mirror. With the exception of a final scene showing Hurt’s character and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, the events of The Incredible Hulk have had very little effect on the rest of the MCU, and that aforementioned scene was admittedly never spoken of again. Bringing Thunderbolt Ross – one of the Hulk’s most famous and iconic adversaries – back into the MCU would immediately fix that and also re-introduce a compelling character into Marvel’s ever-expanding fabric.
