What Could Ant-Man 2 Be?

Edited by Robert Beach

Ant-Man is doing better than I, or a lot of critics, really thought it would. It’s still not burning down the house like Thor or Iron Man did, but it’s a solid release for Marvel that held its own against serious challengers like Minions and Pixels.  None of this is to say an Ant-Man sequel is guaranteed, especially given Michael Douglas hasn’t signed one of those multi-picture deals with Marvel, so if there is going to be a follow up, expect renegotiations there.  Still, Marvel likes success; Ant-Man is pretty successful, and they’ve been looking for something to fill the third movie slot in 2019, so if we hear sometime soon Ant-Man 2 is officially in the works, I wouldn’t be surprised.  With that predication out of the way, let’s talk about what this sequel could be.  

Panel Vision - 10 Marvel Women Who Deserve a Solo Movie

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about Marvel’s representation of women in their films.  Though a lot of this has stemmed from Ant-Man’s portrayal of Hope van Dyne and the Wasp it overall has more to do with Marvel Studio’s infinitely too dismissive and uninvolved attitude towards female superheroes.  Given that I’m very much of the opinion that we definitely do need more female superheroes and it’s kind of supremely ludicrous that it’ll take Marvel 10 years to give us a superhero film where the hero is a woman I thought up a list of 10 Marvel super heroes who need a movie of their own. 

Panel Vision - Hope van Dyne & The Marvel Problem

So, it’s been a little over a week now since Ant-Man came out.  The dust is starting to settle as far as the film’s cultural and box office results go and while the box office results seem moderately solid the cultural response has been a bit more mixed.  Sure enough the film had its fans and I certainly count myself as one of them but more often than not I’ve encountered people who regarded it with just sort of a moderate enjoyment.  More over the film has become something of a nerd talking point over the state of representation, especially the representation of women in Marvel films.  I want to talk about this but I can’t do so without spoilers so if you’re still on the fence about Ant-Man go ahead and read my already spoiler free review, then go see the film, then come back here.  For everyone else, let’s go.  

 

Ant-Man's Role in Marvel Phase 3

So, given that Ant-Man’s been out for a week now I think it’s fair enough to dive into the minutia of his film and what the tells us about Marvel going forward and where he and his supporting cast will most likely pop up next.  This means this blog post will have spoilers for Ant-Man so if you’re still unsure on the film, first go read my review of it, then go see it, then come back here to see where all that’s going and will pop up next.  

 

Panel Vision - Ant-Man

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I don’t think there’s been a movie to garner the same kind of snarky dismissal that Ant-Man has in the lead up to its release.  To some extent the press relationship to Ant-Man is understandable.  The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cultural juggernaut unlike any we’ve ever seen before and it seems plenty of folks in film journalism are just sharpening their knives waiting for the big boys at Marvel to collapse and Ant-Man really seems like the best possible option for them.  An adaptation of a C-list hero so out there and bizarre even Marvel abandoned the character pretty quickly in the comics.  Follow that up with Ant-Man’s troubled production and the very public parting of ways between Marvel Execs and geek auteur Edgar Wright and it’s easy to see why this film might be considered at ‘high risk.’  However it turns out everyone was wrong because Ant-Man is really good, in fact it’s downright excellent, a true stand out of the overall very sloppy Marvel Phase 2.