Peyton Reed Talks About Plans for 'Ant-Man 3'

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens in theaters this week, but people are already wondering if there will be a third installment of the franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now, director Peyton Reed is weighing in.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Reed said that while he doesn't know at this point of an Ant-Man 3 is in the cards he is very hopeful.

"I'll answer that question really honestly," Reed said. "Who knows, because I suspect, I don't know this, but I think any further announcement of the slate -- the rest of this year is going to be about the next Avengers movie and the tea-up to that stuff. And then I think we are all hopeful."

He also said that he already has a story he'd like to tell should Ant-Man 3 happen.

"Just the same as last time. We didn't have any idea there would be a second Ant-Man until maybe a month or so after the first one came out," he explained. "This was a giant question mar. With the first one, there was obviously behind the scenes drama that preceded me, but also, it's Ant-Man. There was a question of, are people going to see this movie? It was not a fait accompli. It could have gone either way. I think we are all interested in doing one. There is a story to tell there. Definitely. There is a story we've talked about potentially. I'm very, very hopeful."

And Reed isn't alone in having had some thoughts about the future Ant-Man. Paul Rudd, who plays Scott Lang/Ant-Man, told Screen Rant last month that while the future is still up in the air, he's considered the direction Scott would go in a future film.

"I don't know. I've had some thoughts," Rudd said. "You know, if they were, I have no idea whether or not they'll do anything else with this, I really don't. Marvel's very good at keeping their cards close to their chest, not just with the public, but I've thought about things, like if we ever did another one what could it be? And I've had some thoughts, but I hesitate to say what they are in case we do wind up going in that direction and some of those things that Scott is dealing with are things that I'm thinking of now."

Of course, should Ant-Man 3 come to fruition, it's something that will likely be impacted by the events of Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers 4. Rudd hinted a bit at this when talking about Ant-Man and The Wasp's post-credits sequences on Late Night with Seth Meyers last week.

"People have asked me about this one (Avengers 4) and this...alright, I don't know if I'm supposed to say this, but I'll say it," Rudd said. "It happens kind of concurrently and it's very important because it doesn't exist in a vacuum. You have to stay through to the end because once you see this thing through those post-credit scenes...there's some mind-blowing stuff in there that kind of ties into Infinity War and it's uh...I think I messed up. I think I messed up yeah."

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens in theaters on July 6th.

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.