There was intially some doubt about whether Marvel was going to hit a brick wall with 2015’s Ant-Man, as critics thought the astonishing shrinking hero might not have enough clout to hold his own franchise. It turns out they were wrong, though, as the movie was warmly received and deemed successful enough to spawn a sequel in the form of this July’s Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Given that, could a third film in the series appear on the MCU’s line-up in the future? Naturally, Marvel Studios is playing their cards close to their chest right now, but according to star Paul Rudd, he’s already got some ideas for where things could go. While speaking with Screen Rant, the actor admitted that he doesn’t know if an Ant-Man 3 is on the cards, but he’s certainly thought about it.
“I don’t know. I’ve had some thoughts. You know, if they were, I have no idea whether or not if they’ll do anything else with this. I really don’t. Marvel’s very good at keeping their cards close to their chest, not just with the public. But I’ve thought about things, like if we ever did another one what could it be? And I’ve had some thoughts, but I hesitate to say what they are in case we do wind up going in that direction and some of those things that Scott is dealing with are things that I’m thinking of now.”
Of course, one element that could be explored in an Ant-Man 3 is Scott’s daughter Cassie becoming a superhero. Actress Abby Ryder Fortson recently revealed that she thinks her character is headed towards becoming Stature, the Young Avenger Cassie ends up as in the comics. Casting rumors likewise point to an aged-up version of the character appearing in next year’s Avengers 4.
Ant-Man and the Wasp also introduces a bunch of new players who could be explored a bit more in a third movie. Namely, Laurence Fishburne’s Bill Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet Van Dyne and Hannah John-Kamen’s mysterious thief the Ghost. Unless, that is, these guys don’t make it out of the sequel alive. I guess we’ll find out next week, when the pic opens on July 6th.