Before we gather for Avengers 4 next year, Marvel Studios will release one more movie in 2018, Ant-Man and the Wasp. While trailers for the film have been released, a teaser for how the movie ties in to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe was suspiciously absent from Avengers: Infinity War.
Now we know why.
Note there are spoilers ahead
In an interview with Collider, Infinity War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely explain why Marvel’s next movie wasn’t attached in any way. It basically comes down to their excitement for Captain Marvel, who will get her own solo movie early next year.
In the post-credits scene for Avengers: Infinity War, as Nick Fury and Maria Hill are disappearing from existence, Fury sends a distress signal by way of a cosmic pager. Come to find out, he was calling Captain Marvel, not Ant-Man (or Hawkeye). The writers chose to tease Captain Marvel, described as the MCU’s most powerful hero, because of the gravitas behind the character.
“We wanted [Captain Marvel] to give a bit of hope to people,” the two writers said.
That’s a low-key burn to Ant-Man, but it isn’t the only reason why he didn’t feature in Infinity War’s post-credits scene. According to Markus, the lighter tone provided by Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man wasn’t a good fit for the shocking ending of Infinity War.
“When you end it like that, there aren’t too many other places you can go,” Markus explained. “Marvel tags often point to the next movie coming. The next movie is Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is light-hearted—you don’t wanna go, ‘But meanwhile! Paul Rudd is still adorable!’”
Another reason is because Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place a few months before Avengers: Infinity War, so it would be odd to tease something that has already happened. In any case, going with Captain Marvel in the post-credits scene is a good move, because fans have been waiting for her debut for years now.
Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6, 2018, followed by Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019.
