‘ANT-MAN’ & ‘DOCTOR STRANGE’ Movies Confirmed To Be in Phase Three for Marvel

You can thank Edgar Wright for bringing ‘Ant-Man’ into the mind of Kevin Feige. Because Kevin has confirmed with MTV News that ‘Ant-Man’ will be the first film for Marvel’s Phase Three pack of films, which will definitely involve Mr. Wright.

“‘Ant-Man’ is definitely part of Phase Three. Like ‘Iron Man 3,’ it’s certainly set in the Marvel Universe, but it’s also through the lens of Edgar Wright — which is the only reason we’re making the movie… I’ve known Edgar since our first lunch together at Comic-Con in 2004. He asked me what Marvel was doing with ‘Ant-Man’ — we weren’t even a studio then; what a difference eight years makes! It’s very much an ‘Ant-Man’ origin movie from the perspective of Edgar Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish. It will of course be firmly planted in the MCU, but a different corner than we’ve seen before.”

Obviously, this most likely means that neither Ant-Man nor Doctor Strange will be in ‘The Avengers 2.’

“So much of the stories we’re telling [right now] is about the core ‘Avengers’ characters we’ve now met, and they’ll be evolving in big, surprising ways, in Cap’s next movie and Thor’s next movie and of course in ‘Iron Man 3,’ as we get them all into the next ‘Avengers’ film. Beyond that… ‘Ant-Man’ is the only one officially announced, but you probably don’t have to look too far to guess at the next list of characters we’re toying with and beginning to develop.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the characters from the core Avengers will be in these future films. Plus, there’s the whole new set of characters for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ which concludes Phase Two.

“‘Doctor Strange,’ which I’ve been talking about for years, is definitely one of them. He’s a great, original character, and he checks the box off this criteria that I have: he’s totally different from anything else we have, just like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy.’ He’s totally different from anything we’ve done before, as is ‘Ant-Man,’ which keeps us excited.”

It would be cool if Dr. Strange did make a cameo in Thor’s sequel, but considering that it’s already filming, they’ve had to had cast Strange already, and I’m sure that’s something they Marvel Studios would’ve wanted if they were even considering having a Doctor Strange movie. I’m not saying that it still isn’t possible, though. If anything, Thor could even just mention him.

So, are you excited about the plans for Phase Three, now that we know who’ll be brought to the big screen? It’s still a few years away from that, though. ‘Ant-Man’ is scheduled for release on November 6, 2015, so ‘Dr. Strange’ most likely won’t be out until early 2016 at the earliest.

For now, here’s the list and schedule for Phase Two, which will consist of five movies: