ANT-MAN AND THE WASP Will Have An "Entirely Different Genre Template"

One of the things that I liked about Marvel's Ant-Man was that it was just as much of a heist film as it was a superhero film. They are going to be switching things up for the sequel, though. In an interview with CBR, director Peyton Reed spoke about his plans for Ant-Man and the Wasp and revealed that it's going to have a very different genre template than the first one.

"I think there's probably going to be some aspects that maybe call back to the tone of this movie, but for 'Ant-Man and the Wasp,' we have an entirely different template. We know what that template is, and we have an entirely different genre template for that movie. But it's going to remain a surprise. But yes, that's already been decided."

I'm curious to know what exactly this different genre template will be. I wish they weren't so damn secretive about that little detail! Adam McKay has expressed interest in coming back to work on the franchise, and when asked if he would be back, Reed said the following: 

"Well, definitely, Paul [Rudd], and we’ve got [Andrew] Barrer and [Gabriel] Ferrari, who were not credited on the movie, but they’re our production writers, they’re coming back. And Adam’s going to come back in some capacity. A lot of it has to do with his schedule on [his new movie] The Big Short, because he’s promoting that movie and is probably, I would think, well into the Oscar season... We talked about Ant-Man, and he’s psyched to come back. We want him back. It’s going to be a scheduling thing."

Well, McKay seems like he's ready to go! In a separate recent interview with JoBlo, the writer/director was asked if he would want to work on the sequel and this was his reply:

"Oh absolutely. I was weaned on Marvel as a little kid so I’d do anything for Marvel. I know they’re talking about ANT-MAN 2 so I let Feige and Paul Rudd know, I’m on deck man, gimme the call because I had so much fun doing the first one."

So it looks like they'll end up working something out. The writing process will star in January, and Reed is excited to get to work on it. He went on to talk about the opportunity he has to play with The Wasp in the sequel:

"I'm excited just for Evangeline [Lily] to actually suit up and become a hero in the movie. I'm also excited about the idea that Ant-Man and the Wasp were a partnership throughout the history of Marvel Comics. It's a different dynamic than we've seen in the rest of the Marvel movies, an actual partnership. You've got Captain America and the Falcon, obviously. But this is a thing that in the comics was a romantic partnership and a heroic partnership, so it's going to be fun to play around with that and discover what the movie version of that is.

"I feel like we've set up a pretty complicated character in Hope van Dyne in the first movie. It's going to be fun to see how that plays out in the second movie, and continue that exploration of the family dynamics between Scott Lang and his family, but also, between Hank Pym and Hope and possibly even Janet. So that's exciting."

The director previously said that this sequel is going to be a lot weirder than the original movie. That could mean so many things, but during the interview, he was asked about the multiple-identity aspect of Ant-Man's history, such as his incarnations as Giant-Man, Goliath, etc. and if that intrigues him on a story level.

"Yeah, I mean, it’s such a crucial part of his character in the comics. I think to ignore that would be crazy, because there’s a lot of rich stuff. Not only with the different sort of super heroic identities that he had in the comics, but just his psychology. We do set up in the movie that when Scott says to him, ‘Why don’t you just put on the suit?’ He’s like, ‘I can’t. I did it for a long time, and it took a toll on me.’ It’s like, ‘Well, what does that mean, exactly?’ I think there are a lot of things that we’re going to explore in the next one that will explain a lot of that stuff."

I imagine a lot of things that they explore in this regard are definitely going to take the film to a weirder level. Ant-Man and the Wasp opens in theaters July 6th, 2018. I'm excited to see where they take these characters next!