'Ant-Man 3' Will Be "More Sprawling" Than The First Two Movies, Says Director Peyton Reed

Marvel Studios is currently in a holding pattern as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep the United States in a chokehold. There's been a longer hiatus between the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe than was initially planned thanks to movie theaters being closed and the release of Black Widow being delayed. But there are still big plans for the next era of the MCU, and we mean that literally and figuratively when it comes to the Ant-Man franchise.

Director Peyton Reed is returning for Ant-Man 3 (or maybe Ant-Man and the Wasp 2), and while he's not able to divulge any groundbreaking pieces of information about the developing sequel, he did say that it would be "a much bigger, more sprawling movie" than the previous two installments in the franchise.

Peyton Reed recently appeared on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show (via Collider), and the director was asked about the status of the next Ant-Man movie. Reed said:

"We are working away through the pandemic. There's some really really really exciting things in store, none of which of course I could speak to you about right now, as is the Marvel way...I think the third Ant-Man movie is going to be a much bigger, more sprawling movie than the first two. It's going to have a very different visual template."

The first two Ant-Man movies took place almost exclusively in San Francisco, and they're much smaller in scope than any of the other movies in the MCU. So if Ant-Man 3 is bigger and more sprawling, then we might finally see Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) take their size-bending heist skills across the world to deal with a larger threat. Of course, we don't have any idea what kind of danger Ant-Man and the Wasp will be facing in the third movie, or how it might tie into any possible overarching plot in Phase 4 of the MCU. So anything is possible.

The good news is that whatever challenges Ant-Man 3 has in store, they'll be tackled by Ant-Man and the Wasp working together again. Not too long ago, Reed reaffirmed the idea that this isn't just the Ant-Man show anymore. When it comes to Ant-Man and the Wasp, Reed told Yahoo:

"They're a partnership, and [The Wasp] a very, very important part of that. And that was a very gratifying thing, I guess technically we were the first Marvel movie with a female hero in the title of the movie. Finding that balance in that movie, that's very important to me because that's very much a men's playing field, historically. But that's really, really changing now in a great way."

So whenever the third installment of the Ant-Man franchise comes around, we can probably expect it to keep the Ant-Man and the Wasp title. As for when we'll actually see it, there hasn't been a release date set yet, so stay tuned.