Weighing in at thirteen discs, this ultimate status symbol among Marvelites collects the Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray 3D, and digital-only editions of Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Captain America: the Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron.
When Marvel originally revealed their plans for Phase 3, conspicuously missing was a date for Ant-Man 2. There was some concern that Ant-Man may never get his sequel and would have to be content appearing in other Marvel things (like Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War), but those concerns have been allayed by Marvel who officially announced Ant-Man and the Wasp will open in theaters in 2018!
It would be easy to label the opening weekend for Ant-Man a failure. After all, it’s significantly lower than the openings for recent Marvel Studios movies and it’s a good $130 million less than the three-day opening Avengers: Age of Ultron had a few months ago. But let’s not be so hasty. Its opening numbers may not have blown anyone away, but Ant-Man’s box office arrival is textbook Marvel.
Marvel’s Ant-Man opens in theaters today and to this point we’ve seen no shortage of trailers, clips and TV spots showing off all kinds of footage. But, on the last stop on his promotional tour for the movie, Paul Rudd stopped by to visit Conan O’Brien and brought something extra special.
Did you know that Marvel has been working on an Ant-Man movie since the late-1980s? Stan Lee originally pitched the concept to New World Entertainment (then Marvel’s parent company), but they turned the idea down because Disney had just released Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. This is just one of the little facts packed into the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies, which proves size matters with Ant-Man!
By now, everyone is familiar with the interconnectedness of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how every film references what came before and what’s arriving next. So it makes sense that Ant-Man, the riskiest Marvel endeavor yet, will supposedly be filled with references to one of Marvel Studios’ surest things: the new Spider-Man. We guess the bug-themed superheroes have to stick together, huh?
Marvel has long included Easter eggs in their films, referencing other superheroes and properties in the MCU throughout its current run with Disney. But there’s another Disney property that’s been acknowledged in the MCU: Star Wars. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige reveals that they’ve used the same Star Wars Easter egg in each and every one of their Phase Two films, although you probably didn’t notice it.