Although the Ant-Man sequel is still about two years away, Scott Lang/Paul Rudd fans got a huge glimpse at the character in this summer’s Captain America: Civil War. And while Peyton Reed is a little envious that the Russo brothers beat him to that giant punch, the director is excited about focusing on Ant-Man And The Wasp as a duo in the forthcoming sequel. In an interview with Modern Myth Media, Reed says that, in the spirit of the comics, he’s going to give the characters equal weight:
I always thought of Ant-Man and Wasp as a team and that’s a lot of what the second movie is really about is how they work together, what their personal and professional relationships are like. To show her finally fully formed in this movie is really exciting. We really get to introduce this character into that universe. I mean we’ve introduced the character, but we haven’t seen her with her full power set and everything, so to me she’s not a supporting character in this movie. It’s every bit as much her movie as it is Scott Lang’s.
Evangeline Lilly is reprising her role as Hope van Dyne, daughter of original Ant-Man Hank Pym, who got her own high-tech suit during an Ant-Man mid-credits sequence. Hope was more than ready to don the Ant-Man suit in the first film, but Hank was being a total dad about the whole thing and refused to let her succeed him—something to do with worrying about her getting stuck in the quantum realm. But now that she’s basically the Wasp, Reed plans to present the characters as co-leads in the sequel.
Reed and Rudd are already working on the script for Ant-Man And The Wasp, which is scheduled for release on July 6, 2018.