‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Cast, News: Paul Rudd Offers Brief Update on Sequel’s Development; Peyton Reed Expresses Enthusiasm on Returning as Director

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ lead actor Paul Rudd recently offered a brief update on the sequel’s development. ‘Ant-Man’ director Peyton Reed also expressed his enthusiasm over returning for a follow-up in a previous interview.

During an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rudd offered a new update on the upcoming Marvel sequel for ‘Ant-Man’ directed by Peyton Reed. He said, “We’ve been coming up with the story, just turned in a treatment, but it’s so preliminary. We’ll see. We have an idea of what it might look like but it could change a lot from where we’re at now.”

Rudd is set to reprise his role as Scott Lang a.k.a. Ant-Man in the second installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) standalone ‘Ant-Man’ series. He is joined by Evangeline Lily as Hope van Dyne a.k.a. The Wasp and Michael Douglas as Hank Pym.

Scott Lang was a former professional criminal who was convinced by Hank Pym to take on the mantle of Ant-Man. He was recruited to the Avengers as part of Captain America’s team to take on Iron Man’s allies during the conflict fueled by contrasting views on the Sokovia Accords. Rudd was last seen as Ant-Man in Joe and Anthony Russo’s film ‘Captain America: Civil War’.

Meanwhile, Reed is returning to direct the sequel on a screenplay prepared by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari.  Kevin Feige is serving as executive director.

Reed previously expressed his enthusiasm over coming aboard for a second time as director. According to Cinema Blend, he said, “It's something we're excited about. For me as a comic nerd, 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.”

He continued, “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.”

The first film in the cinematic series held its world premiere in Los Angeles on June 2015 and was received with positive reviews from critics and fans of the original Marvel comic books. It also became a commercial and financial success after earning $518.6 million worldwide on a production budget of $130 million, according to The Numbers.

Reed’s upcoming follow-up was first announced in October 2015 with filming expected to take place sometime in 2017. It is intended as the part of the MCU’s Phase Three together with films such as Scott Derrickson’s ‘Doctor Strange’, James Gunn’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’, Jon Watts’ ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, Taika Waititi’s ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, Ryan Coogler’s ‘Black Panther’ and the Russo Brothers’ ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ is an upcoming action-adventure and fantasy film scheduled to premiere in theaters on July 6, 2018.