'Ant-Man And The Wasp' Connects Directly To 'Avengers 4', Says Kevin Feige

During our visit to the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp, director Peyton Reed told us that the events of his upcoming superhero sequel were "separate" from Avengers: Infinity War, taking place years earlier in the wake of Captain America: Civil War. But in a new featurette, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says that Ant-Man and the Wasp will directly connect to Avengers 4 instead.

At the very end of this newly-released featurette about Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne (aka the Wasp), Feige officially confirms what we've been speculating for a while: that Ant-Man and the Wasp will "directly connect" with next year's Avengers 4. I love the editing in this video, too, because as soon as Feige reveals that information, the characters look at each other quizzically as if they're reacting to Feige's comments instead of a piece of in-movie action.

Ever since Avengers: Infinity War blew away half of the characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we've been wondering if those characters who faded away didn't actually die, but were instead transported to another dimension – maybe even the Quantum Realm. We've theorized that Ant-Man and the Wasp could be vital in retrieving them in Avengers 4, and without confirming the specifics of our theory, Feige is certainly making it sound like a pretty good bet with that new quote.

"These characters are going to be very important going forward," he concludes. It's safe to say the characters he's referring to are Wasp and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), but could characters like Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) or Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne) also fall under the umbrella of that statement? Maybe!

A new TV spot points to how the connection might work. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video (the rest is a compilation of TV spots incorrectly labeled as a trailer):

"I had a dream," Scott says. "I saw the end of everything." If this is real, it means Scott (like Tony Stark and Thor before him) has seen a vision of how bad things will get. "Millions of lives at stake," Michael Douglas's Hank Pym says ominously. "It's the only chance we've got." Is this proof that at least part of Ant-Man and the Wasp does in fact take place after Thanos snaps his fingers at the end of Infinity War? How else could millions of lives be in the balance?

Marvel Studios has become increasingly sketchy with its marketing to preserve surprises or create misdirects for eagle-eyed fans, so part of me wouldn't be surprised if neither of those moments ever happen in the movie. But if Feige is shooting straight – and he usually is – then the stakes of this movie are way higher than we previously thought.

Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6, 2018.