Ant-Man and the Wasp were conspicuously absent from the events of Avengers: Infinity War and now Marvel fans have some sense of why thanks to Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed.

In an interview with IGN, Reed explains that he is jealous possessive of Marvel’s smallest heroes.

“Listen, I have jealousy issues,” Reed says. “Whenever these heroes pop up in movies I’m not involved in I get jealous. I mean, I’ll be honest with you. The Russos and I still have a thing about it.”

More seriously, Reed expressed how it was important that Ant-Man and the Wasp stand on its own apart from the two Avengers movies surrounding it on Marvel Studios’ release schedule.

“It was important to have this movie be a standalone thing, its own beginning, middle and end, and to sort of be different tonally than, obviously, Infinity War,” he says. “For me, it was really about taking what we had done with these characters in the first movie and forwarding them in ways that were interesting and hopefully unexpected.”

Reed also revealed that he’s hugely excited to be introducing the Wasp properly into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that her debut was originally planned for Captain America: Civil War.

“And Obviously I’m most excited about introducing Wasp,” he says. “There was a point really early on where she was going to be introduced in Civil War, early on, but there just simply wasn’t screentime to do justice to that character, so we’ve done it here.”

The official synopsis for Ant-Man and the Wasp reads, “Scott Lang is grappling with the consequences of his choices as both a superhero and a father. Approached by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym, Lang must once again don the Ant-Man suit and fight alongside the Wasp. The urgent mission soon leads to secret revelations from the past as the dynamic duo finds itself in an epic battle against a powerful new enemy.”

Are you as excited as Peyton Reed is for the Wasp's debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp? Let us know what you think in the comments!

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens in theaters on July 6th.

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.