Paul Rudd is the star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s smallest franchise in more ways than one, with the two Ant-Man movies so far offering a much narrower focus than the studio’s usual formula of having their title heroes stop an evil plan that has the fate of the world at stake.
The character’s standalone outings have so far largely been confined to a single location and featured villains that the rest of the Avengers wouldn’t get out of bed for, meaning that they also don’t require the same level of investment, either. The first Ant-Man is the cheapest movie that Marvel Studios has ever made, and as a result, they aren’t under pressure to deliver the typical box office numbers associated with the MCU.
In fact, Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp are the two lowest-grossing installments in the series since the conclusion of Phase One, with Rudd and director Peyton Reed much happier to play in a smaller sandbox. While a third movie is in active development, and is widely expected to be a part of Phase Five, there still hasn’t been an official release date announced for Ant-Man 3.
The effects of the Coronavirus pandemic have already had a massive impact on Marvel’s plans for Phase Four and beyond, while Evangeline Lilly’s controversial comments about the virus generated the kind of publicity that the studio would rather avoid, raising serious questions about her future as Hope van Dyne.
And in a recent interview, Rudd admitted that while Ant-Man 3 is definitely in the pipeline, with the movie industry only just starting to recover from the chaos caused by the pandemic, he isn’t able to offer much in the way of concrete information.
“That’s the idea. I don’t know what I’m supposed to say or what I’m not supposed to say, but with this quarantine who even knows anything anymore?”
The 51 year-old has already written a draft of the script, and having been credited on the first two movies, it seems likely he’ll be heavily involved in the screenplay again, but with Captain Marvel 2 and Black Panther 2 already being awarded release dates, it could be late 2022 or even 2023 until we see Ant-Man 3.
