When Edgar Wright vacated the director’s chair of ‘Ant-Man,’ it was said that the filmmaker behind the Cornetto Trilogy and ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’ had some creative differences with the studio regarding the film. Evangeline Lilly shed some light on the subject when she revealed that the script didn’t tie into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe as much as the executives would have liked. Now, a new rumor potentially reveals how Peyton Reed’s version of Hank Pym and Scott Lang’s story connects to some upcoming films like ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War.’

Previously, we learned that Robert Downey Jr. and Chadwick Boseman would be joining the cast of the third solo big screen adventure starring the Star-Spangled Avenger as Iron Man and Black Panther respectively, but now it appears that Ant-Man will factor into the story as well. According to a rumor from StarLog, not only will Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym come across John Slattery as Howard Stark and Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter in the upcoming Phase Two film, but he’ll also meet “a young military hot-head by the name of Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross”, a character that was played by William Hurt in 2008’s ‘The Incredible Hulk’ and in 2011’s ‘Marvel One-Shot: The Consultant’. But how does that connect to ‘Civil War’? It’s kind of a long story.

First, it’s important to know that the events of ‘Ant-Man’ and ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’ are happening at the same time. That explains why the former ends Phase Two instead of the second film featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Then, General Ross enters the picture for the first time in a while when he appears in the post-credits scene of ‘Ant-Man’ to recruit Dr. Pym to the Superhuman Registration Act. After the events of ‘Age of Ultron,’ Stark is afraid to use his own technology, so he sends his begrudging ally Ross to bring Pym, who has been in the private sector since ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier,’ on board with the government’s pro-registration forces. Finally, Scott Lang comes into all this when Black Widow is arrested for aiding fugitive superhumans, which will explain her limited involvement in ‘Captain America: Civil War.’ The size-shifting master thief breaks out Agent Romanoff in a future Marvel film and aligns himself with the anti-registration Avengers.

This is certainly a lot to take in and if you do take it in, be sure to take it with a really, really big grain of salt, but it all makes pretty good sense. I could see all of this actually playing out, but what about you? Do you believe these rumors about ‘Ant-Man’ connecting to ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’, ‘Captain America: Civil War’, and beyond? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

‘Ant-Man’ starring Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Corey Stoll flies into theaters on July 17, 2015.