Peyton Reed needs to send up as many flares as possible to distract from the record-breaking second-weekend drop for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a record no one wants to hold.
The latest flares, AKA distraction from the poor box office, comes in the form of hyping any future installments of Ant-Man movies. This time, the filmmaker spoke to Yahoo Entertainment UK about wanting to change the scope and style for the fourth Ant-Man and the Wasp movie, looking to go “smaller.”
The filmmaker tells Yahoo: “I think you’d have to [go smaller]… I also think that you can’t lose sight of those family dynamics and the idea of this ‘street-level’ quality of Ant-Man, of the Wasp, in the first couple of movies.”
“But the family dynamics, no matter where they are, that’s the key thing,” he adds. “And particularly, I think that Scott-Cassie’s relationship. I like the idea of certainly Cassie becoming a big part of the MCU ongoing. I think there’s a lot more story to tell with these characters.”
Since he feels this latest entry is a finale of sorts, any new entry would need to rebuild and start fresh. “This one [Quantumania], I was treating it like a trilogy, as if this were the last one,” says Reed. “You can never presume you’re gonna get to make another one. But I think there’s a lot of story to be told with these characters. So we’ll see.”
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania dropped 69.7% in North American theaters in its second weekend at the box office, becoming the worst second-weekend drop-off for an MCU feature. There are no plans for additional Ant-Man films, though the characters will appear for the event films like Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars. Reed’s future in the MCU is up the air as well, as Disney CEO Bob Iger is looking to make adjustments to all the divisions and made it clear no one is safe.
In Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania sees Peyton Reed returning to the director’s chair and stars Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Evangeline Lilly (Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp), Michael Douglas (Hank Pym), Michelle Pfeiffer (Janet Van Dyne), Corey Stoll (Darren Cross/MODOK), Kathryn Newton (Cassie Lang), Jonathan Majors (Kang the Conqueror), Bill Murray (Krylar), David Dastmalchian (Veb), Katy O’Brian (Jentorra) and William Jackson Harper (Quaz).
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently playing in cinemas.