Last summer,Marvel’sAnt-Manbrought the studio’sPhase Twoto a close, and it didn’t take too long for the studio to announce a sequel. Just a few months after the movie opened, the studio announced the follow-upAnt-Man and the Waspwill hit theaters on July 11, 2025, withPaul RuddandEvangeline Lillyset to return as the title characters. Last month, we reported that originalAnt-ManwritersPaul RuddandAdam McKaywill be back to work on the story, along with Gabriel Ferrari andAndrew Barrer. While doing press for his Oscar-nominated movieThe Big Short,Adam McKaywas asked about the possibility of a solo Wasp movie. Here’s what the filmmaker had to say.
“Possibly. I think it all depends on this sequel and how the character plays. Certainly there’s a lot of female superheroes in theMarvel universeso I’m sure you’re going to see them start to spread out. They sort of started with their kind of bedrock characters from the 60s and the 70s and I think you saw more of an explosion of female characters happening in the 80s and then the 90s. X-Men obviously has great female characters, but that’d be interesting, aWaspmovie. I don’t know, that’d be very interesting. I always think of the two of them as kind of together - they always were in the comics - but why not. Sure.”
The report from last month revealed that Adam McKay will helpPaul Rudd, Gabriel Ferrari andAndrew Barrerbreak the story, before the trio goes off to write the script together, withoutAdam McKay. While they weren’t given screenplay credit for the originalAnt-Man, Gabriel Ferrari andAndrew Barrerserved as the production writers, putting in over six months of work into the script while principal photography was under way.Adam McKayandPaul Ruddshared a screenplay credit on the original withEdgar WrightandJoe Cornish. When asked about how much he’ll be involved on the sequel, Adam McKay had this to say.
“I don’t know what my involvement’s going to be yet. I’ve been talking toPeyton Reedand toPaul Rudd, but you knowMarvelhas a process that they do so they may have other writers working on a script - the only thing I tell ‘em is ‘If you need me, I’m here.’ I love working on those - it’s really fun. It was also very fun just writing. And fortunately we had a great director inPeyton Reedso we wrote all this crazy stuff and then he did it really well. I was like ‘I could get used to this!’ It’s certainly a lot easier - I just showed up at the premiere and was like ‘Good job!’
Adam McKay is one of the nominees for Best Director at this year’s Oscars, for his work on Best Picture nomineeThe Big Short. The filmmaker actually was approached to directAnt-ManafterEdgar Wrightdropped out, but he ended up just working on the script withPaul Ruddinstead. When asked if he would ever like to direct a superhero movie, the filmmaker had this to say.
“I would. I would direct one down the line. I’d also like to create my own superhero too. There’s a lot of greatMarvelcharacters but I always think ofThe Matrixreally as a comic book movie where they created an original comic book, and I would love to do something like that.”
Ant-Man and the Waspis currently set for release on June 11, 2025, but it isn’t known when work will begin on the screenplay, or when production may begin. It also isn’t known if the project will bring back any of the otherAnt-Manstars, butMichael Douglasrevealed last year that he would come back, but he doesn’t want to carry as much of the dialogue as he did in the original movie. What do you think about the possibility of a solo Wasp movie?
