**SPOILERS** "Ant-Man" opens this Friday, and while it was once positioned as a standalone lark for Marvel, the movie has more connectivity to the MCU than "Guardians Of The Galaxy," and that’s not just because of the film’s two post-credits scenes. Already revealed in some promotional material, Ant-Man winds up fighting The Falcon at the new Avengers headquarters in a key sequence in the film. And Kevin Feige reveals there will be more for fans to pay attention to in that scene other than Scott Lang and Sam Wilson going toe-to-toe.
Noting that it was Adam McKay and Paul Rudd who came up with idea of Ant-Man encountering The Falcon, Feige reveals how he took the idea one step further. "I said that would be cool, and not only that but I also told them we were introducing a whole new Avengers facility at the end of ‘Age of Ultron,’ " he told Fandango. "So not only could they encounter the Falcon, but it would make sense if he had to go to what he believed was an old Stark facility and was unaware it had now become a major Avengers facility. It sort of naturally spiraled like that."
And of course, there’s more. "If you were to freeze the frame when Ant-Man is flying over the Avengers facility, there are new landmarks and buildings in that frame that you won’t see until ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ " Feige says. Expect some high-res screengrabs to hit the web when the Blu-ray comes out as fans try to find the clues.
Meanwhile, "Ant-Man" lays out further groundwork for the future. The path is set for Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) to join in on the action, but what about Janet Van Dyne, her mother, seemingly lost to the microverse? "If you watch the movie again, and when Scott [Lang] enters the Quantum Realm (or the Microverse), keep a keen eye out [because] there might be some clues in that sequence," director Peyton Reed told Digital Spy.
Taking it one step further, Michael Douglas all but says Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne will go searching for Janet. "Without giving it away, there are certain things in the end-credits… that give some suggestion about Paul’s Ant-Man and Evangeline, and where they might be going," he said, while noting Marvel hasn’t told him anything concrete about where the story goes from here.
Finally, because Marvel insists you know everything before the movie opens this Friday, here’s the theme song by composer Christophe Beck.
Generic theme. Couldn\’t this guy have thought of some way to evoke a picture of armies of scuttering ants? That\’s what I would have done. I\’m SMRT.