Ant-Man 3 Director Peyton Reed Teases a Bigger, More Sprawling Film Than Previous Movies

It truly does take two to make a thing go right, and when Ant-Man 3 makes its arrival into the MCU, Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne could very well face their greatest threat yet. The third film will see Peyton Reed return once again to his directorial duties, with production rumored to begin in 2021.   

Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne won't be the only familiar faces to return, as Reed has cryptically hinted that Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch could also make a reappearance. Burch's role in Ant-Man and The Wasp felt very much as a means of setting up a larger threat to come in the third film, and Peyton Reed may have added some recent speculation to such a theory. 

NEWS

In an interview with SiriusXm Radio, Ant-Man 3 director Peyton Reed elaborated, as best he could, on what fans should expect from the third film in the franchise.

Firstly, Reed noted that production on Ant-Man 3 has of course been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but that exciting things are on the horizon: 

"We are working our way through the pandemic...there are some really exciting things in store, none of which I can speak to about right now. As is the Marvel way!"

When asked for a small tease of what fans should expect, Reed interestingly noted that audiences will be in for a different Ant-Man film when compared to its two predecessors: 

"I think the third Ant-Man movie is going to be...a much bigger, more sprawling movie than the first two...It's going to have a very, very different visual template. And that's all I will say." 

WHAT THIS MEANS

Marvel Studios strives to have films that are diverse in genre when compared to one another. Captain America: The Winter Soldier has been regarded as a political thriller, and for the most part, the Ant-Man franchise has been regarded as the MCU's "heist films." The first two films followed a similar heist template, but Peyton Reed's Ant-Man 3 update might just hint that fans will see something different the next time Ant-Man and The Wasp team up. 

Fans have long speculated that MODOK could be in play as the Ant-Man 3 villain, very likely being the mysterious "benefactor" that Sonny Burch referred to in Ant-Man and The Wasp. MODOK and A.I.M were reportedly included in a previous draft for the Ant-Man 3 script, written by Paul Rudd himself. While nothing is confirmed yet, if Marvel Studios were to leverage MODOK as the main adversary, it would likely necessitate a different plot template than that of a heist.

Could this be something that Peyton Reed is referring to? Having a villain of MODOK's caliber would surely make the third film "bigger" than its predecessors, and his presence would likely mold Ant-Man 3 into a different type of film in the franchise. The MCU's Phase 4 and beyond is entering new territory, and according to Peyton Reed, clearly Ant-Man 3 is achieving the same.