Humour Will Always Be Part of Ant-Man Universe, Says Director Peyton Reed

Los Angeles: Director Peyton Reed says humour is a big part of the Ant-Man universe and will continue to be in all the movies coming out of the franchise.

After the success of the first movie, superhero Ant-Man will be back with Ant-Man and the Wasp.

"Humour is a big part of the Ant-Man universe and will continue to be in Ant-Man and The Wasp. It was fun to see Civil War and see Scott Lang appear in that movie. The story's not about Scott Lang, so he can just make jokes and have fun," Reed said in a statement to IANS.

"Paul Rudd and I have talked a lot about how there was an onus on us in the first movie, particularly the first half of the movie, to set him up as an action hero. It was the first time Paul had really played a character like that, and, of course, he got into amazing shape. His performance is terrific but we needed him to be a little more subdued, a little more laconic in the first half of the movie.

"So, he is a bit more of a straight man in the first movie, particularly the first half. He still gets plenty of laughs in that movie but in this movie, now that we have done that heavy lifting, it is going to be every bit as funny and even more so," he added.

The movie is set between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

Rudd's Scott Lang/Ant-Man and Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne/The Wasp team up after Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) asks them to battle Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who has the ability to be invisible and intangible. It is slated to release in India on July 13 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Reed says the film will introduce some new faces.

"There are definitely going to be some new faces in 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' and faces that Marvel comics' fans will certainly recognise. They are faces that haven't been featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe yet.

"But that's one of the things that's really exciting to me, as it was to introduce Hank Pym in the first Ant-Man, and also to place him retroactively into the MCU's history of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was really fun to take Michael Douglas and plop him firmly into the history of this universe."