Ant-Man Was Planned As A Trilogy, Director Says

Although Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been chosen to kickstart Marvel's Phase 5, it's also the third movie in Ant-Man's personal saga. In a new interview, director Peyton Reed has explained that he always thought of the films as a trilogy--though he didn't rule out more Ant-Man films in the MCU's future.

Speaking to Lifehacker Australia, Reed explained that his vision for the Ant-Man movies was influenced by the films he grew up with. "I think in the back of your mind, for an optimistic person, you’re like oh, it would be great to do a trilogy of these movies," Reed explained. "I grew up with trilogies, Back to the Future, Star Wars, the Indiana Jones trilogy. So to me, it's like I treated this like a three-act structure of this story."

"There were things in the first movie and the second movie we set up that I really wanted to pay off in this movie--character-wise, environment-wise--and to have it culminate with this encounter with this big villain," Reed added. The inclusion of notorious Marvel supervillain Kang the Conquerer is also the reason Quantumania was chosen to lead Phase 5, Reed said, describing him as a "sort of depth charge to the MCU."

Reed also promised that Ant-Man 3 will be bigger and more epic than its predecessors, including plenty of payoffs for elements that were introduced in the first two films. "The third movie in a trilogy is not always the best," he explained. "I thought let's flip this, let's make this [one] the most epic, but also the most intimate, that deals with things on a grand scale, but really strengthens and broadens those family dynamics and the character."

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania comes to cinemas on February 17.