Peyton Reed Talks Ant-Man, Easter Eggs, Sequels, & More

The big screen just got a whole lot bigger as Marvel Studios released their final installment of phase 2: Ant-Man.

Ant-Man introduces a handful of brand new characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope van Dyne, played by Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, and Evangeline Lilly, respectively, sure to become game changers come Civil War or Avengers 3.

We had the chance to sit down with the man tasked with introducing these characters to the cinematic world at large, Peyton Reed, at the the Walt Disney Studios headquarters in Burbank, California. The Bring It On and Yes Man director, who took over for Edgar Wright late in the pre-production game only to knock it out of the park with Ant-Man, shared his thoughts, as well as some insight to Easter Eggs and Marvel Universe references with us.

The following transcription contains spoilers and may not be suitable for readers who have yet to see Ant-Man.

CB: First of all, thanks for taking the time out to talk. I loved the movie and I can't wait to see how the fans react when it comes out.

PR: Thank you, very much!

Do you feel a little bit of pressure doing a Marvel movie?

I think I feel pressure every time I make movies. Movies are just pressure cookers by design. This one is definitely a bigger movie than I've done in terms of visual effects and stuff. I think there's almost 1,600 visual effects shots in the movie and this is the type of movie I've always wanted to make. To be able to do it and to be able to do it at Marvel was just... It was a thrill.

Sure! Now, this was a little bit different than any movie you've done before. Super heroes, effects, I mean, you did a great job, but what made you drew you into it? What drew you into this script or this project?

I was a kid who grew up reading Marvel comics. When I got the call from Kevin Feige, I could come in and talk about Hank Pym and Scott Lang and I could converse about Ant-Man and if I were directing the movie, what I'd like to see in the movie. I had very specific ideas about it. What I liked about it: A, it was an origin story. I had known this character in the comics for years and years and years so to be able to be the guy to bring him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a thrill. I also like that it was a really different kind of, a smaller, no pun intended, but a smaller, intimate movie about fathers and their daughters and the hero Scott Lang, his biggest goal in the movie is to be a part of his daughter's life. I thought that was cool and different.

It definitely was. It felt more grounded and even where you're doing this fantastical things and even when explained with science they're super heroes and it's imagination, but the family aspect keeps it very grounded. Now, through that family aspect, with Hank and Hope and Janet, and Scott and Cassie, it seems like seeds were planted for either a sequel or even a prequel. Is that something you would be interested in?

Listen, if we were lucky enough to be able to do a sequel or even a prequel, I'd love to do it. I've really fallen in love with these characters. I was always in love with the characters in the comic book world but there's a lot of story to tell with Hank Pym. I mean, where we leave him at the end of the movie after Scott Lang survives the quantum realm, it leaves a lot of questions for him. He may or may not embark on a mission that the question remains, is that gonna be a good thing? A bad thing? By the end of the movie, Scott Lang has really, sort of, just first become Ant-Man. The big question is what's next for that guy? We already know he's gonna show up in Captain America: Civil War which is really exciting.

Who's side is he on?

You're not gonna get it out of me! But then, of course, Hope! I love that aspect of the movie where the answer to Hank Pym's problems and resolving the situation that he's in was sort of right there under his nose, he just didn't realize it. That's sort of Hope's arc to becoming a hero. That's something we really, I think, just scratched the surface on.

Now, am I making things up here, or when Scott was traveling through that quantum barrier was there a flash of a person in there?

You're not making things up!

I have a couple theories - Janet, of course being one, - but maybe Eternity because they kept using that word.

I'll say this... When Scott goes into the Quantum Realm, he goes through these different layers of going subatomic. As Hank says, "Shrink for all eternity," unless he does something. But he passes through these different levels of the subatomic realm. As he's going through there, the audience, you have to be sharp, but there's a quick vision of something or someone there that appears. I supposed when the DVD and blu-ray come out you can freeze frame and see it more clearly.

Until then, we just have to go time and time again to try and figure it out!

Yeah! But beyond that, I can't really answer what the question is. There's definitely something to be explored. It definitely reignites Hank Pym's obsession with might or might not happen with Janet. In one of the last scenes of the movie, he's fascinated, "You survived the quantum realm! What did you see?" And Scott can't remember much but we see the wheels turning in Pym that he may have more work to do.

Very cool. I love getting in your head about this stuff. Now, you had an Avenger in this movie. What was it that made you pick the Falcon to be the Avengers who Ant-Man encounters at the Avengers facility?

That was actually something that Adam McKay, who came in and wrote several drafts of the script with Paul Rudd, that was McKay's idea. We talked about the fact that Ant-Man's a heist movie and one of the tropes in a heist movie is before the big heist, you know, it's like, "Okay, we've got the plan in place but there's this one extra thing that we gotta do and we gotta get before the heist can get pulled off." In this case, it was a particular item that Pym needs. He sends Scott, sort of into this situation, way before Scott has trained enough to deal with it, and he encounters a certain Avenger. We loved that idea. When Adam [McKay] pitched that idea we loved it because that sort of thing in the comics - you love it when one hero and another hero and for whatever reason they're pitted against each other and you're wondering how's that power going to stack up against this one and there's such a wish fulfillment quality to that.

Of all these super hero characters, Marvel or DC, is there and character you would love to get your hands on after Ant-Man?

I grew up a total Marvel kid. I knew that comics came out on Tuesdays and on Fridays and I would have my dad drive me to the news stand and pick up my comics. Like most kids my age I grew up loving Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Avengers, all of them. We are now in a world where with technology you can really vividly present these characters and their powers. In the case of the Marvel movies, it attracts A-list talent and you're able to tell these stories on such a palette. There were so many characters I was a fan of but I have to say Ant-Man, early on, he was one that I loved. Particularly, when he's in the Avengers because he had this sort of inferiority complex because he's fighting next to Thor and Hulk and it's fun in terms of the movie to have Paul Rudd play that. He has that underdog feel to him. He's not ready to be a hero quite yet.

Speaking of Spider-Man, your movie got to drop the first reference to Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! How long did you know that was coming?

Well, as everything the Marvel Universe, things are constantly changing and evolving. It was something that very late in the game happened. We had those conversations about, "Are we going to deal with it in our movie? Should we deal with it in our movie and if so, how?" We liked the idea of just dropping a little, tiny reference toward the end of the movie. That excited me. Just to have that connection with a character I grew up loving - it was great.

It was great! You basically introduced him.

Yeah!

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Ant-Man is now playing.