Marvel is dealing with what the Internet likes to call First World Problems: The studio has too many successful franchises. They already had to clear space for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and the upcoming "Spider-Man" reboot. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for a potential "Ant-Man 2."
If the Paul Rudd led film is another surprise sleeper hit that cleans up at the box office, fans will undoubtedly expect a sequel. But Marvel's schedule is already packed with Phase 3 films such as "Doctor Strange," "Black Panther," "Captain Marvel," "Avengers: Infinity Wars", "Thor: Ragnarok" and more. That means that a follow up to "Ant-Man" may not be in the cards.
"The answer is I don't really know," Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige said via io9 about a sequel. "We're entering territory that's an incredible problem to have, which is too many franchises to navigate. That's a very very high class problem and if we're faced with that high class problem, we will try to figure out a solution in a way that allows us to produce the movies in the way we have."
"Ant-Man" director Peyton Reed is definitely on board should Feige ever green light the project.
"If there's an 'Ant-Man 2' I would love to come back for it," he told Screen Rant.
As of now, there are far too many characters taking up space in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to receive their own solo film (Black Widow comes immediately to mind). But Marvel has worked their way around this by upping the screen time for these characters in other projects (Widow in "Winter Soldier," Hawkeye in "Age of Ultron"). Perhaps that is what Marvel will do with Rudd's Scott Lang, who is set to appear in next year's "Captain America: Civil War."
That doesn't mean that "Ant-Man" will be a one-and-done series; money talks, after all. But it will be interesting to see how Feige and Marvel studios prioritize the franchise going forward. The Hulk franchise may have been slowed by complicated distribution rights, but it was really the 2008 film's disappointing box office total that put a nail in the solo series coffin.
Will "Ant-Man" suffer the same fate? We'll have to wait to find out.
