Ant-Man type Movie

Will we see Paul Rudd in another solo big-screen Marvel adventure? That’s the question raised by the $58 million Ant-Man earned over the weekend, a figure that fell short of the respective amounts grossed by Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor — the two films most comparable to Scott Lang’s cinematic debut — but was still enough to secure pole position at the box office.

When EW spoke with Ant-Man director Peyton Reed on the day of the film’s release, July 17, he admitted he was unsure as to whether there would be a sequel (“It still remains to be seen”) but was hopeful Marvel Studios would add Ant-Man 2 to the lengthy roster of upcoming projects the company announced last October.

“You know, Marvel laid out their plans at the end of last year that take them in to the Year 2083,” laughed the filmmaker. “So I don’t know where we would work into that. [But] there’s a parallel with directing. If you’re a smart director, you have a plan, but you’re also smart enough to know that if there’s a better idea to be had, you can deviate from the plan. I like to think that maybe Marvel thinks that way in terms of their larger universe.”

Reed also confirmed that he would be more than happy to return to the franchise. “I’d love the chance to do a second movie and further the voyage of these characters and do another Ant-Man adventure where it’s not an origins story and we’re free to just take those characters and go wherever we want to go,” said the director whose previous credits include Bring It On and The Break-Up. “I mean, there’s clearly some stuff that’s set up at the end of our movie, there’s some questions asked of these characters that hopefully we could provide the answers to. I feel there’s so much story yet to be told wth this character.”

As to when work might begin on a sequel, Reed claimed he “would be nuts right now to hazard a guess.” But…?

“In the best case scenario, if we’re lucky enough to actually have serious conversations about it, I think everybody would be inclined to make it happen as soon as possible,” he said.

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