BeforeMarvelunveiled their fullPhase Threeslate in October,Avengers: Age of Ultronwas previously set to be the lastPhase Twomovie, withAnt-Mankicking offPhase Threea few months later. That all changed when the studio revealedCaptain America: Civil Warwill kick offPhase Three.Ant-Mannow serves as the finalPhase Twoadventure. During an interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, producerKevin Feigerevealed thatAnt-Mantruly does close outPhase Two, and that it introduces the “quantum realm” into the MCU, and teasing that one of theAvengersmay show up. The fact is,Ant-Mansets up Phase 3 in some very interesting and surprising ways.
“Ant-Man is the movie that closes out Phase Two. But the truth is, there’s so much in Ant-Man that all plays into Phase ThreeIt really is the movie that closes outPhase Two. Phase One ended with Avengers. So some people thought that Phase Two would end with an Avengers film. But the truth is, there is so much inAnt-Man: introducing a new hero, introducing a very important part of technology in the Marvel universe, the Pym particles.Ant-Mangetting on the Avengers' radar in this film and even - this is the weirdest part, you shouldn’t really talk about it because it won’t be apparent for years - but the whole notion of the quantum realm and the whole notion of going to places that are so out there, they are almost mind-bendingly hard to fathom. It all plays intoPhase Three. It became very clear that Ant-Man is the pinnacle and finale ofPhase TwoandCaptain America: Civil Waris the start ofPhase Three.
The producer added thatAnt-Manis a perfect example of a film that both stands on its own, and is connected to the MCU as a whole.
“Ant-Manis one of the best examples of how a movie can do both. It’s absolutely a stand-alone film about Hank Pym and Scott Lang, but it is within this universe.”
Ant-Man centers onPaul Rudd’sScott Lang, a thief who is released from prison and is recruited by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) to help him plan a massive heist.Paul Ruddteased that Lang has a run-in with one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, during one of their heist’s “test runs,” although he wouldn’t confirm which Avenger it is.
“Essentially, this is a heist film, and if you look at the structure of heist films, there is always a test run and the test run fails. In talking about what could be a good test run, we were just playing around with conversations and thought, ‘Oh my God, what if he actually fought an Avenger?’ We started getting really giddy about this idea. It seemed like that would be a fun way to incorporate the universe into this film.”
