The president of Marvel Studios has his say on the future of the MCU, and where Ant-Man, Spider-Man and others will fit in.
[toggler title=”TL;DR” ]Kevin Feige says Ant-Man is the perfect way to end Marvel’s Phase Two, and that Spider-Man remains a Sony character.[/toggler]
[dropcap size=small]A[/dropcap] lot of Marvel fans might be wondering why Age of Ultron didn’t close out Phase Two of their cinematic universe. After all, Avengers was the last film in Phase One, and Infinity War will close out Phase Three. In an interview with THR, president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige explained why their second phase couldn’t end with the second Avengers movie, and why Ant-Man is more of a phase-closer than opener.
‘Some people thought that Phase Two would end with an Avengers film, but the truth is, there is so much in Ant-Man: introducing a new hero, a very important part of technology in the Marvel universe (the Pym particles), Ant-Man getting on the Avengers’ radar in this film. The whole notion of the quantum realm and of going to places that are so out there, they are almost mind-bendingly hard to fathom. It all plays into Phase Three.’
Director Peyton Reed describes Ant-Man as a ‘palate cleanser’, in the sense that it’s a father-daughter heist movie where the climactic showdown happens on a Thomas the Tank Engine play set, rather than in a war for the world. So it sounds like Ant-Man is going to go to places the MCU hasn’t been before, and these places will open up the world in time for Phase Three and Civil War (in which Ant-Man will appear), but it will remain a grounded, human movie at its heart.
Feige also had his say on other Marvel matters, such as their involvement in Sony’s Spider-Man, and when we will get a Black Panther director.
‘By the end of the summer,’ he says of the latter. ‘We’ve met with [Ava DuVernay (Selma)] for sure. We’ve met with a number of people for a number of movies.’
As for Spider-Man, who will this time be played by Tom Holland (The Impossible), Feige insists that his solo movie remains a Sony one, and reiterates the agreement between the two studios.
‘We’re producing [the movie] for Sony, and we’re treating it like we treat all of our films; to try to make a version of Spider-Man that inhabits this universe that we’ve created. We’re in lockstep with [Sony chairman] Tom Rothman and [producer] Amy Pascal at every turn. The agreement that has been made is that we could have some of our Marvel characters show up in Sony’s Spider-Man.’
So there you have it. Feige and Marvel Studios are preparing for Phase Three, and their preparation starts this summer with Ant-Man, and the end of Phase Two.
Ant-Man will premiere in the US on July 17th.
