The Ant-Man franchise might seem small in stature but its box office power cannot be neglected. The franchise has earned more than $1.1 billion worldwide between the first Ant-Man film and its sequel, Ant-Man & The Wasp.
Ant-Man made his cinematic debut in 2015 and the film earned $519.3 million worldwide, while the sequel to it has recently crossed the $600 million mark. The movie got released in July and its highly unlikely for it to cross the $700 million mark as it ends its theatrical run very soon.
The first film was directed by Edgar Wright who had been working on this project for almost eight years. Unfortunately, Wright had to quit the project in 2014 due to various creative differences with the Marvel Studios. Peyton Reed luckily took over the project. Its sequel, Ant-Man & The Wasp was also directed by Reed.
Here’s what the former director, Edgar Wright, had to say about his departure:
“The most diplomatic answer is I wanted to make a Marvel movie but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie. I was the writer-director on it and then they wanted to do a draft without me, and having written all my other movies, that’s a tough thing to move forward. Suddenly becoming a director for hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”
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Fans have responded positively to the character so far and Paul Rudd has been widely appreciated by fans for his portrayal of Ant-Man in the MCU. Even Wright expressed his happiness for Rudds’ success and said the following:
“I regret the time wasted. I actually had dinner with Paul Rudd [recently] in New York, and we’d seen each other before, but this was probably the first time we’d sat down since all of that and I was like, ‘Well, at least I got my friend cast in that movie.’”
Directed by Peyton Reed, Ant-Man & The Wasp stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Tip “T.I.” Harris, David Dastmalchian, Hannah John-Kamen, Abby Ryder Fortson, Randall Park, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fishburne, and Michael Douglas.
Set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, Scott Lang, now under house arrest after the events of Civil War, tries to balance his home life as a father with his responsibilities as Ant-Man. When Hope van Dyne and Hank Pym present him with a new mission to bring to light secrets from their past, Lang teams up with Van Dyne as the new Wasp.
Ant-Man & The Wasp is now playing in theaters!
