Peyton Reed talks ‘Ant-Man and Wasp,’ female heroes, Evangeline Lilly to be ‘awesome’
He said that he’d worked with Lilly on her character in the first movie, and praised her acting and physicality in the work. He said he plans to “be loud” to make sure that the Wasp doesn’t get ignored in publicity and merch for the movie, the way that many have criticized Marvel for the relative lack of Black Widow merchandise.
“It’s such a no-brainer that there needs to be female heroes,” Reed said. “It’s about keeping the stories interesting and having fresh stories to tell. I always like that about Ant-Man and Wasp because it dealt with gender politics as well as superhero stuff. In the comics, particularly in the ’60s comics, the Janet Van Dyne Wasp was clearly written by all men and was pretty one-dimensional. She’s gotten much more dimensionalized since then. That’s one of those things that I think is going to be really exciting and fresh about this movie. You do feel a certain amount of responsibility. At the end of the day it’s organic to that character and the movie.”
It’s noteworthy that empowered female characters are something of a specialty of Reed’s.
“It’s been important to me in all my movies,” Reed continued. “It’s a huge part of ’Bring It On,’ strong female characters, and ’Down With Love’ is a movie about feminism. So to me it’s something that I’m just psyched to be able to explore in this movie.”
Janet Van Dyne has not yet been cast, though Reed does have “definite ideas.” He wouldn’t reveal whether Doctor Strange will delve into the Quantum Realm Ant-Man established, citing fears of a “Marvel sniper” lurking in the North Carolina woods he was calling from, but did tease another secret that he shared with other Marvel directors.
“There’s a very complicated secret [hand]shake that members of the Marvel Universe have, but I’m not at liberty,” he said.
Ant-Man will be released on Blu-ray and DVD December 8.
Ant-Man and the Wasp will arrive in theaters on July 6, 2018.