One glance at the MCU timeline reveals that Captain America: Civil War was sandwiched between Ant-Man and its 2018 follow-up, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
And while Scott Lang was recruited for Joe and Anthony Russo’s ensemble pic, the Wasp was left on the shelf – fitting, really, as Peyton Reed had dreamed up plans for a suitably grand introduction for Evangeline Lilly’s heroine. So much so, that he almost “went nuts” when Hope Van Dyne was linked with a potential role in Marvel’s Civil War.
Alas, Wasp never made the cut, but while discussing his imminent MCU sequel with The Hollywood Reporter, Reed admitted that he dug his heels in so that Evangeline Lilly’s superhero debut was kept in the holster until Ant-Man and the Wasp.
It’s this shockingly fluid thing. When they were writing Civil War, there was a point where not only were they going to get the Giant-Man debut, but they were going to get the Wasp debut too.
Peyton Reed then joked that he struggled to get over the fact that Captain America: Civil War was the one to unveil Giant-Man in all his glory – something he wasn’t prepared to do for the Wasp and her “coming out party.”
Oh yeah, I went nuts ‘No, we can’t do that.’ And also, there are so many characters in Civil War and also in Infinity War that it became a thing where, you can’t have Wasp’s coming out party in the movie, because you are only going to be able to devote this much screen time to her and that’s what our movie really wanted to be about. Those kinds of things are conversations that happen and they just sort of organically reveal themselves.
Projected to hit $80M during its opening weekend in North America, Ant-Man and the Wasp is attracting strong buzz ahead of its theatrical launch, and if it’s more coverage you’re after, look no further than our official review.