We’re already about to see Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but we know tiny bout what exactly is happening on the Disney+ side of things. There have been a few teases of projects getting postponed and we still have no release date for Secret Invasion; Marvel Studios’ return to exploring the more grounded, spy-centered aspect of its franchise.
While we still wait for a new trailer and release date, it seems we got at least a minor update for the show created by Mr. Robot‘s Kyle Bradstreet. According to the always reliable Film Music Reporter, Kris Bowers has joined the project as its composer. He’s worked on quite a variety of projects ranging from Dear White People. the popular Bridgerton series, Green Book, and even Space Jam: A New Legacy. So, he definitely has an interesting variety of projects on his back but may have the opportunity to work on many others similar to how Michael Giacchino became quite a favorite.
The first tease we got for Secret Invasion hinted at a very grounded take on the original, which is likely to upset some hoping to see a bunch of Skrull-replaced Avengers. Still, the story does lend itself to Marvel Studios to attempt their own take on what Andor accomplished. Plus, if you get someone as talented as Bradstreet to direct a series for you, you’ll be sure to give him as much freedom to make it work and play with your head throughout.
Well, here’s an exciting surprise. We’ve long heard about a mysterious Star Wars project from Damon Lindelof and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy but still have no idea how far along in production it is. The project was first teased all the way back in March and a new rumor from The Hot Mic may have hinted that it has already found its central star. It seems that the future Wonder Man himself, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has joined another major franchise and will be one of the leads for this new Star Wars entry that reportedly takes place after The Rise of Skywalker.
This is naturally a rumor and nothing more, but Adul-Mateen has been quite the rising star. Not only did he have a major role in the Aquaman film but was even set to lead a spinoff that sadly got canceled. He took on the iconic horror role of Candyman in a recent remake and is also attached to Marvel Studios’ upcoming series Wonder Man. So, adding another Disney franchise with Star Wars to his resume is definitely not too shabby.
This also marks the second time he and Lindelof worked together on a project, as he also took on the role of Dr. Manhattan. He gave quite a memorable performance and may have left quite an impression, which potentially put him on the list to lead this project. It’s certainly going to be exciting to see just how far his career will go and how big his future is with Star Wars if this turns out to be true.
Marvel Studios’ Phase 4 introduced audiences to more than a dozen new heroes, many of whom are (or on track to become) legacy heroes in the MCU. Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova have stepped into their respective roles as Hawkeye and Black Widow and Riri Williams is primed to become the MCU’s new Armored Avenger. Marvel Studios’ latest project, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, will see another legacy hero added to that list as Cassie Lang, who has long hoped to be a superhero like her Dad, will finally suit up.
There’s definitely a pattern forming and while it doesn’t only include young legacy characters (Sam Wilson has taken on the mantle of Captain America, there’s a new Hulk in Jen Walters and Jane Foster served as Thor for a spell), they certainly seem to be at the forefront. According to Quantumania producer Stephen Broussard, Cassie’s emergence as a hero is something inherent in the DNA of the Ant-Man franchise and not necessarily connected to the larger plan. “I think it’s very germane to the Ant-Man film because it’s a generational film,” said Broussard. “The Ant-Man mantle gets passed down from Hank to Scott and now essentially to Cassie, who’s almost more of like the new Ant-Man, even though she doesn’t go by such, more so than the new Wasp.”
Still, fans of the comics can see a pattern within the pattern of the young heroes being added to the MCU. Now that Cassie has assumed her mANTle as a hero, she joins Kate Bishop, America Chavez and Elijah Bradley as members of the comic book team known as the Young Avengers who have made their way into projects in the Multiverse Saga. WandaVision introduced and took away Billy and Tommy Maximoff, but with Joe Locke set to bring Billy Kaplan into the mix in Agatha: Coven of Chaos, it seems likely that Tommy Shepherd won’t be far behind. Should Teddy Altman and the Kang Variant Iron Lad make their way into upcoming projects, all the original Young Avengers (and then some) would be present and waiting for their team-up.
While Broussard denies that a Young Avengers project is in the works, he does admit that a pattern is emerging. “But a lot of Phase Four was about introducing the next generation and introducing new characters,” said Broussard. And if the Young Avengers are all hanging out in the MCU, wouldn’t it make sense for them to team-up? Broussard agrees it would be a good idea and teases it’s probably on the table. “I think that’s one of the themes that the next generation reminds us,” Broussard said of the idea of these heroes finding each other and working together, adding “and that would be exciting to explore with Cassie going forward, or with any of the new characters, like Kate Bishop. People like that, who have inherited the mantle, and keeping to fight the fight, and make the world a better place.”
In summary, Broussard said that yes, they wanted to introduce the Young Avengers in the Multiverse Saga and that yes, they’d like to see them all team up but no, there’s no Young Avengers project in the works. We hear you loud and clear, Stephen.
Evangeline Lilly‘s Hope van Dyne stands among Marvel Studios‘ most decorated female heroes, now making her fourth appearance in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Hope has undergone an incredible transition over the course of her appearances, providing Lilly with the opportunity to spread her acting wings and put her versatility as an actress on display. Ahead of Quantumania’s premiere, Lilly reflected on her character’s past and waxed hopeful about the future in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“She started the films as a very cold, very detached, very insular woman, who was independent and not reliant or really intimate with anybody,” said Lilly of Hope. “And now, suddenly, I mean, we’ve evolved through this third iteration of the story where she has redeemed her relationship with her father, she’s reunited with her mother, she has fallen in love with Scott and she’s also like a stepmother to Cassie.“
As happy as Hope is to reunite with her mother, Michelle Pfeiffer‘s Janet hasn’t been entirely honest with her family about her time in the Quantum Realm, which ruffled some family feathers, according to Lilly.
It was really good for me. It felt like we were entering a space that I was far more comfortable in. I was like, ‘OK, this is my jam now. Now we’re talking about the space where I thrive, which is more dramatic material. And I was excited to dive in with Michelle and Michael
Evangeline Lilly
Lilly’s excitement about the growth of her character led her to pitch a solo project for her character to Marvel Studios’ head honcho, Kevin Feige. And while Feige stayed non-commital, Lilly expressed her certainty that the time was right for the project.
When I first started, it was like, ‘No, no, no. Ant-Man and the Wasp, they’re a duo. They’re so good together. Three movies later, I’m like, ‘OK. Alright. We did it. C’mon, I want some time to tell a story.
Evangleine Lilly
Lilly’s passion for the character speaks for itself; however, Marvel Studios plans its work out several years in advance, so while there is certainly room for The Wasp, it may be a matter of years before fans can catch it in theaters or on Disney Plus.
Though the John Krasinski-led Jack Ryan series will come to an end following its fourth season, the future of the Clancyverse continues to look bright. In January, Amazon announced it was moving forward with an adaptation of Tom Clancy‘s Rainbow Six, to be directed by Chad Stahelski, as a follow-up to 2021’s Without Remorse, which starred Michael B. Jordan as John Kelly. Now things are prepped to heat up as the project has found its co-writers.
Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith, who co-wrote 2013’s British TV series Run, have signed on to write Rainbow Six, according to THR. Unlike its predecessor, Rainbow Six is expected to debut in theaters.
Before he broke out the white tank in The Fast and The Furious, Vin Diesel boldly sported a black tank in the 2000 sci-fi adventure Pitch Black. Diesel’s twisted space Jesus, Richard B. Riddick, went on to be the focus of a pair of follow-up films in 2004’s The Chronicles of Riddick and 2013’s less wordy Riddick. Now, a decade later(and as the Fast franchise comes to an end), Diesel is heading back to the Pitch Black universe.
According to Deadline, Diesel and David Twohy, who wrote and directed the three previous installments in the franchise, are working together on developing Riddick: Furya. Twohy, whose screenwriting credits also include Kevin Costner’s Waterworld, Harrison Ford‘s The Fugitive and Demi Moore‘s G.I. Jane, broke the news in an official release.
Our legion fans have demanded it for years, and now we’re finally ready to honor their call to action with Riddick: Furya. My collaboration with Vin and One Race has spanned 20 fruitful years, as together we’ve created three movies, two video games, an anime production, and motion comics for the internet. This new big-screen event will see a return to Riddick’s homeworld, where we finally get to explore Riddick’s genesis.
David Twohy
The announcement came with a brief synopsis of the new adventure and based on what can be gleaned from it, it seems that Riddick’s latest adventure may lead him to the discovery of the most important thing in the universe: family.
Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins by the Necromongers. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new enemy. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.
Diesel’s return to the role of Riddick, one he famously snagged at the last minute, as he wraps the Fast franchise could open the door to more projects in the Pitch Black universe. Though none of the films have landed well with critics and the most recent one didn’t really resonate with audiences, Vin is Vin and two of the three films earned more than double their production budgets. Perhaps Vin will take Dom’s advice, see how the next film is received and plan the future of the Pitch Black franchise a quarter mile at a time.
M.O.D.O.K. seemed like one of the most unlikely characters to jump from the pages of Marvel Comics to the shared cinematic universe being created by Marvel Studios. Everything about the character seemed for too over-the-top for a live-action version to be accepted…and then came Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. Against all odds, M.O.D.O.K., played by Corey Stoll, will make his debut in the film as a member of Kang’s Quantum Realm crew. The inclusion of the character, who was greatly reimagined for the film, was no easy task but thanks to the commitment and imagination of the creatives working on Quantumania, M.O.D.O.K. is ready for his grotesque closeup.
“For me, it was a personal thrill,” said director Peyton Reed about the inclusion of the massively craniumed character. “I was a kid who spent a lot of my childhood alone in a room reading Marvel comics. And M.O.D.O.K. was always this insane character. And he’s grotesque. He’s a giant head that has been turned into a mechanized organism designed only for killing,” explained Reed. “That was intriguing. So, we started talking about, is there a place in the MCU in the Ant-Man movies, for a live-action version of M.O.D.O.K.? And what would that look like and how would we go about it?“
Reed’s line of questioning was addressed by Marvel Studios’ Parliament member and Quantumania executive producer Stephen Broussard. “I mean, it’s a very odd character, to say the least,” stated Broussard. “It’s kind of loomed large in our imagination of how and if we could pull that off. You know, it always felt like a challenge, like, going back years, here at Marvel. And we hit on an idea. And we think we had an idea that we were excited about,” he added of bringing the character to the MCU. “And I don’t wanna say too much here in this forum,” teased Broussard, “but I think the time was right to bring M.O.D.O.K. to the big screen, finally.“
M.O.D.O.K. was almost certainly not on many lists as a character who would make their way into the MCU, but as Broussard said, the time was right and tying Stoll’s Darren Cross’s grotesque exit in 2015’s Ant-Man to M.O.D.O.K.’s classically discomforting look was a brilliant way to tie things together and find an in for the villain. Judge for yourself if Reed and Broussard made the right choice wit the character when Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters on February 17th.
In 2018, Evangeline Lilly‘s Wasp became the first female character to have her name in the title of a film in Ant-Man and The Wasp. The Wasp is back (and back in the title) in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and the character has undergone significant growth since being introduced in 2015’s Ant-Man. With Scarlett Johannson‘s Black Widow off the board, The Wasp now shares the title of the MCU’s longest-tenured female lead with Zoe Saldaña‘s Gamora and Elizabeth Olsen‘s Wanda Maximoff.
While there’s already been talk of a fourth Ant-Man film in the works at Marvel Studios, one that would almost certainly see Lilly return as Hope, the actress also has bigger plans in mind for her character. During the world premiere of Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Lilly expressed her desire to see her character star in her own solo project, “a Wasp standalone film.” During the global press junket for Quantumania, Marvel Studios One Above All, Kevin Feige, was asked about the prospects of such a project. “The opportunities within the MCU are endless, as they are in the multiverse,” said Feige. “So, we will have to see what happens in the future.“
Feige’s non-commital comments shouldn’t be read into too deeply. The head honcho of Marvel Studios wouldn’t confirm or deny the existence of such a project during a junket. Phase 5’s slate looks to be set and probably won’t even include whatever Peyton Reed and Paul Rudd throw together for Ant-Man 4; however, the Multiverse Saga is certainly not the end of the MCU and, as Feige says, the possibilities for its future are endless and those may just include The Wasp somewhere down the line.
Marvel Studios kicks off Phase 5 with Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania on February 17th.
10 years ago, Paul Rudd may not have been on a lot of lists to portray a Marvel superhero. After making a name for himself in 1995’s Clueless, the actor had a great run of comedies in the early 2000s with memorable supporting roles in Anchorman, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and I Love You, Man. Then, in 2015, Rudd debuted as Scott Lang, who has become one of the MCU’s greatest heroes. A lot has changed for Rudd–and Lang–since then and now he’s back for another go around as the MCU’s most everyman hero in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
As Quantumania begins, Lang and his family look to have put their superhero days behind them. Since the events of Avengers: Endgame, Lang has published, Look Out for the Little Guy, a memoir of his time in the suit. Memoirs require reflection and thus, during the global press event for the upcoming entry in the Ant-Man franchise, Rudd was asked to reflect on his time as Lang and about what he likes (and dislikes) the most about the character.
Well, I think what I like most about him is that he is a regular guy who has reservations about all of this, still. And that, you know, he’s just a dad. I like the fact that he is kind of a part of this group with some pretty impressive people, and superheroes, and that he would be the first guy to say, “What the hell am I doing here? This makes no sense at all.”
Paul Rudd
Rudd’s words certainly call to mind his first encounter with Captain America and the Avengers during the events of Captain America: Civil War. Lang’s superheroing has mostly gotten in the way of his best intentions with his daughter, Cassie, and his relationship with her has been at the core of the Ant-Man franchise. That relationship has drawn fans to the franchise and, unsurprisingly, is part of what Rudd enjoys the most about the character.
And, you know, he’s a real person. And so you want to play, I mean, as an actor, somebody who is relatable and hopefully a sympathetic person. And somebody that, you know, you understand maybe what they’re going through. And I like that. I like playing the father aspect. I like playing the, trying to, you know, wrap my brain around the situation that I find myself in. So his human quality is the thing that I like the most. And as opposed to probably his cyborg quality, which is the, you know, the part I don’t like. No, there’s nothing about the character that I don’t. I like the guy. Yeah. I mean, I’m biased, I guess, but yeah.
Paul Rudd
Rudd’s joke aside, Lang has become one of the MCU’s most lovable characters making it no surprise that Marvel Studios has already begun talking about a fourth Ant-Man film. That film is certainly a ways off given the studio’s already jam-packed slate, but it seems Rudd has more to offer the character before bowing out of the shared cinematic universe.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania debuts in theaters on February 17th.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hasn’t beenreleased in theaters yet but there’s already talk of a fourth installment in the Ant-Man franchise. Marvel Studios’ Parliament member and executive producer Stephen Broussard recently indicated that a plan has been hatched for another Ant-Family film, citing “whispers” between Kevin Feige, director Peyton Reed and himself. With Quantumania looking to take in $100M or so in its opening weekend at the box office, it’s likely those whispers will grow a little louder and that Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Douglas will all be reprising their respective role in Ant-Man 4.
While Newton’s MCU career is on its first leg, however, Douglas‘s may be on its last though it isn’t because the legendary actor is getting shoved out the door by Marvel Studios. Quite to the contrary, Douglas, who joined the MCU as Hank Pym in 2015’s Ant-Man seems to be ready to turn the page. When asked about his interest in returning for a fourth Ant-Man film, Douglas agreed he’d do it on one condition. “As long as I could die,” the actor joked about Pym’s return.
The 78-year-old Douglas has had a stellar career and should undoubtedly go out on his own terms. Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, have only played supporting roles in the MCU thus far and it seems unlikely that further films in the Ant-Man franchise would provide more opportunities for meatier roles. Perhaps there’s still more life for the characters in a 70s set Disney Plus series following their adventures, but if so it seems like Disney may have to look to replace Douglas.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters on February 17th.
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. By using our site, you consent to cookies.
This website uses cookies
Websites store cookies to enhance functionality and personalise your experience. You can manage your preferences, but blocking some cookies may impact site performance and services.
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.
Name
Description
Duration
Cookie Preferences
This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences.
30 days
These cookies are needed for adding comments on this website.
Name
Description
Duration
comment_author_email
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author_url
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
comment_author
Used to track the user across multiple sessions.
Session
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how visitors use our website.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intention is to show ads that are relevant and engaging to the individual user.
Pinterest Tag is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic.
