As the sequel’s post-mortem continues, Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed has now turned his attention to Scott Lang, whose ill-fated Civil War adventure helped sow the seeds for Marvel’s 20th installment in the ever-expanding MCU.
Chatting to The Verge (h/t CBM), Reed recalled the moment when he realized that Captain America: Civil War‘s creative team – namely the Russo Brothers, along with Infinity War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely – had left the door open for Ant-Man and the Wasp ever so slightly.
Not only did Scott Lang expose Hank Pym’s physics-defying tech to Tony Stark, he also wound up in jail after swearing allegiance to Team Cap. And that’s where Peyton Reed’s teeny-tiny sequel picks up the baton, story-wise:
It was like, ‘Wow, this is amazing! Scott Lang went off, took the suit, fought with the Avengers, exposed the technology to Tony Stark, got put in prison, and the suit was confiscated!’ It gave us such fertile ground in terms of where to start our movie.
All of this can be traced back to the Sokovia Accords, a piece of government legislation that forces every superhero to make themselves known to the authorities, and only then will they be granted some semblance of a normal life. Scott Lang obliges on the condition that he’s able to spend time with his family – Cassie included – but it isn’t long before he’s dragged back into the thick of the action thanks to Hank and Hope.
And it made sense that Scott’s going to be on house arrest, and Hank and Hope are going to be pissed at Scott Lang, and also pissed off because the enforcers of the Sokovia Accord are now onto them. So it gave us a really organic jumping-off point. I don’t know that we would’ve come to it as quickly and clearly if Scott had not been in Civil War.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is still playing across theaters nationwide. So far, it’s collected around $284M at the global box office, though we fully expect that figure to rise further still – particularly once the MCU sequel opens in the United Kingdom early next month.
