Peyton Reed Explains Why Ant-Man Sequel Is Ant-Man And The Wasp

When we heard the title for the Ant-Man sequel would have its heroine in its title, the reaction was much like Hope van Dyne's to seeing her costume for the first time: "About damn time."

Peyton Reed, director of Ant-Man and almost sure-thing director of Ant-Man and The Wasp, recently opened up about the sequel's title. "It just happened to be organic for the characters of Ant-Man and Wasp, [so] it worked," Reed began while talking to Yahoo. "Her last line in the movie — 'It's about damn time' — [is] very much about her specific character and arc in that movie, but it is absolutely about a larger thing. It's about damn time: We're going to have a fully realized, very very complicated hero in the next movie who happens to be a woman."

As for the sequel, which is still well over two years away, Reed is excited to explore the world of Ant-Man he was merely able to scratch the surface of in the debut. "I think one of the appealing things about coming back for a sequel is to be able to build it from the ground up this time," Reed said. "Also, [there's] stuff that we clearly set up in the first movie that we want to pay off and have fun with in the second movie. Since we know [the characters'] origins, we can go in some weird, unique and different territory."

Ant-Man will be next appearing in May's Captain America: Civil War, which Reed has no control over, despite bringing the character to life on the big screen. It wasn't easy to hand over creative control of Paul Rudd's Scott Lang. "There was definitely a point where I was a little envious," he laughed. "I felt a proprietary thing over that character. I remember to say to Paul, 'You're going down to Atlanta to work with those other guys?' It was like my girlfriend had left me for someone else." However, he is at ease with the brief custody exchange - he's seen the rough cut of Civil War and Reed calls it, "Fantastic."

Captain America: Civil War hits theaters May 6, 2015 and Ant-Man and The Wasp is set for release July 5, 2018.