We’ll get to see Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) again in Captain America: Civil War in May, but the character will be returning in the sequel to Ant-Man, 2018’s Ant-Man and The Wasp. Evangeline Lilly will also be returning for the sequel, not just as a love interest, but as The Wasp – an actual super hero this time around. Her character was revealed briefly at the end of Ant-Man, as Hank Pym revealed the suit he’d worked with his wife Janet on to his daughter, Hope Van Dyne, hinting that we’d see Lilly’s character suit up next time that we’d see her.

Entertainment Weekly caught up with Ant-Man director, Payton Reed, on the Captain America: Civil War red carpet to talk about the direction that they plan to take with Evangeline’s Wasp going forward.

“Evangeline is an amazing actress. The first movie was really about her coming into her own as a hero, even though we didn’t see her suit up yet,” Reed said. “So we’re so excited about now being able to show her fully formed and what she is as a superhero. Her power set, how she fights, and what are the injustices that matter to her that she wants to right. That’s part of the really fun thing of the next movie.”

While Civil War will be introducing two heroes that haven’t previously appeared in the MCU, Black Panther and Spider-Man, while also introducing Ant-Man to the greater MCU, the decision was made that The Wasp would not appear again until her own film.

“It just didn’t make sense for Wasp [to be in Civil War] because there’s so many characters in this movie, and you really want to see her become a hero and really spend time with her,” Reed said. “She’s a complicated character and a rich character. We’re really, really having fun writing that.”

What will that story be? They are still working that out.

“We’re pretty early on still. … We all holed up and we’ve been doing these sessions and structuring the movie. So we’re in the structural phase now, and it’s fun.”

With all of these Marvel characters, and all of the new films, there is always the risk of burnout. Reed says that the team is working hard to make sure that what they bring is original, keeping the audience’s interest.

He added, “The challenge in Ant-Man and the Wasp is just topping everything that comes before. But that’s a challenge I think with every Marvel movie, with every hero movie. You don’t want the audience to get bored and feel like, oh man, I saw that in the last movie. You always got to give them something different.” As Rudd put it, “We’re just getting started. We’re working on it for a little while. Coming up with some ideas … It’s creatively fulfilling, and challenging, and daunting, and exciting, more than anything.”

With Marvel upping the game in every movie, everything must seem like a hard act to follow, but each movie is keeping up. I’m sure that whatever they come up with for Ant-Man And The Wasp, we’ll be excited to see it in theaters July 6th, 2018.

Source: Entertainment Weekly