In case you were worried there weren’t going to be enough Marvel movies coming out in the next five years, put those weird and unfounded phobias on the back burner because Marvel Studios has announced four new films we didn’t already know about, including giving Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man a sequel. That movie, entitled Ant-Man and the Wasp, will feature Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly, probably) doing some kind of fighting that involves being shrunk way down. This marks the first time in the MCU that a female hero gets her name in the title.
“But Kyle,” you might protest, “Captain Marvel‘s got a movie and her name IS the title.” Yes, that’s true, but in addition to the new Ant-Man movie, which has been slotted for a July 6, 2018 release, the fates of two other Phase 3 movies have been affected. Black Panther has been moved up to February 16, 2018, and Captain Marvel has been pushed back to March 8, 2019. Yeah, so we’re still four-and-a-half years away from seeing a solo movie featuring Carol Danvers.
This is pretty disappointing for fans who’ve been really looking forward to the MCU’s first solo female superhero movie. It may be that Marvel has a very specific actress in mind and she’s otherwise indisposed until much later, or it could be that they’re planning a rolling release by having Captain Marvel show up in other MCU films first. It might make sense for her to pop up in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 in 2017 or, and this is probably more likely, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 in May 2018. Either way, thanks to Spider-Man and now Ant-Man and the Wasp, there are now eight more Marvel movies before our favorite cosmic Kree-fused heroine takes flight.
On top of the Ant-Man and the Wasp announcement, Marvel Studios has also announced three unnamed films, all of which will be released in 2020 – May 1, July 10, and November 6. So, the year of Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs is covered at least.
What’re your thoughts on Ant-Man and the Wasp? Do you think Marvel’s giving Carol Danvers a raw deal or are they just building anticipation? Let us know in the comments below!
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Kyle Anderson is the Weekend Editor and a film and TV critic for Nerdist.com. Follow him on Twitter!
