Uncredited for their six-month stint on Marvel’s Ant-Man while it was still early in production, Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari are on the verge of inking a deal that would have them pen a screenplay for Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Working in tandem with both Paul Rudd and Adam McKay, Deadline writes that Barrer and Ferrari are in line to be much more involved for the diminutive hero’s next adventure, teeing up a script that will seemingly take the superhero sequel into a different genre altogether.
McKay, fresh off directing Oscar hopeful financial drama The Big Short, will reportedly help establish the framework for the screenplay with Rudd, Barrer and Ferrari, before the trio go on to develop the narrative into a feature-ready script. It’s still too soon to tell what exactly the 2018 follow-up will involve, though the fact that it will be opening in a post-Civil War Cinematic Universe indicates that the stakes will be considerably higher this time around – as they so often are in sequels.
What will be interesting from a creative perspective is how that core quartet will build Ant-Man 2 from scratch, as opposed to working within the shell of an idea left behind by Edgar Wright and scribe Joe Cornish.
Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) will take on the title roles, while Michael Douglas has voiced his hopes of returning as brilliant scientist Hank Pym. Peyton Reed is primed to take the reins of Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is on course to hit theaters on July 6, 2018.
