Ant-Man‘s been a bit of an unknown quantity in the MCU canon, with fans not really having an idea of what to expect following Edgar Wright’s fairly high-profile departure from the film. With today’s release of the first full trailer, Marvel has revealed that the film will be much more akin to the weird and funny Guardians of the Galaxy than to fellow super-suit enthusiast Iron Man.
It’s probably small comfort to Wright that the final film looks to bear a much stronger similarity to his vision than we would have expected a little under a year ago. It looks funny and self-defacing with some pretty impressive action scenes (including one that takes its inspiration from the test footage shown at SDCC 2012.
All in all, Ant-Man‘s looking surprisingly good considering the road its taken, and thankfully this looks more like the Peyton Reed who directed The Weird Al Show, Upright Citizens Brigade and Mr Show, and less like the one who brought us Down with Love, The Break-up and Yes Man.
As for how the film connects to the larger MCU, Kevin Fiege had this to say to Slashfilm.
Civil War is the start of Phase Three. It just is. And Ant-Man is a different kind of culmination of Phase Two because it very much is in the MCU.
You meet new characters and you learn about Hank Pym and his lineage with the MCU over the years. But at the same time, it also picks up the thread of Age of Ultron in terms of heroes – major heroes, Avengers – coming from unexpected places. Whether it’s prison in the case of Scott Lang or being very disgruntled Sokovian Twins as Wanda and Pietro are in Age of Ultron. And in that way it connects a lot.
Also, Hank Pym’s attitude towards Avengers, towards S.H.I.E.L.D, and kind of the cinematic universe in general, is much more informed after the events of Age of Ultron, and in a certain way, before the events of Civil War.
Perhaps this important connective tissue is why the project wasn’t scrapped following Wright’s departure.
