Ant-Man

If you haven’t seen Ant-Man yet, then consider the following a spoiler. Evangeline Lilly’s future as Wasp in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is hardly a secret, though we knew for some time prior to the release of Ant-Man that we wouldn’t see her suit-up as the comic book hero in that film. But one of your first reactions after seeing Ant-Man was probably something like, “Great, so when will we see Lilly as Wasp, then?” Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has an answer. Kind of.

It’s funny, fitting, and sort of cruel that Ant-Man’s version of the Wasp is named Hope. The comic-book version of the Wasp is named Janet van Dyne, the longtime romantic and crime-fighting associate of Hank Pym’s Ant-Man. The film’s Ant-Man is Scott Lang (Paul Rudd); its Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) is an older man who retired many years earlier. Hope (Evangeline Lilly) is his daughter, grown to adulthood and desperate for the opportunity to be a hero. Her father, though, has other ideas.

If you’re a huge MCU fan or you have one in your life, and you’re looking for holiday gift ideas, then Marvel’s got you covered. The studio is releasing a huge, special edition Blu-ray set containing every film from Phase Two, from Iron Man 3 to Ant-Man. Even better: the set comes with a special mystery Blu-ray disc. Hmm. What could it be?

Having teased Ant-Man's arrival earlier this year, and finally showing off the prototype at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, Hot Toys has released the first official images and details for it's upcoming miniature Paul Rudd replica. Ant-Man joins an incredible roster of Marvel Cinematic Universe characters that have been recreated in figure form from the Chinese manufacturer, which makes sense given how popular Hot Toys' Movie Masterpiece line has become in regards to Marvel's characters. However, if you had told me back when this whole MCU thing started that Ant-Man would be getting a ~$200 figure in the future, I'd probably have laughed you out of the room. Like many of the more recent figures in the this series, Ant-Man will come with some accessories, but the only one that really matters is the 2.8cm (1.1") non-articulated Ant-Man miniature. Judging by the number of similar product releases this year, it must be part of Marvel's contract for toy makers to include these microscopic iterations of the character. We get it guys; he shrinks. On top of being so effing small, there's so little detail in the mini-figures, it hardly seems worth the added inclusion.

If you’re heading out to a theater to see Ant-Man this weekend (and if you’re not, you really should check out Trainwreck), you’ve probably got a few things preoccupying your MCU-loving mind — for instance, where might one spot potential Marvel Easter eggs in the studio’s latest superhero film?

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!

If you needed any further proof that Marvel is now fully a part of the Walt Disney Company family, look no further than a new collaboration with ESPN (also a subsidiary of Disney). A group of Marvel artists --- Alex Maleev, Sara Pichelli, Emanuela Lupacchino, Lenil Francis Yu, Frank Cho, Russell Dauterman, Mike Deodato, Jim Cheung and Greg Land --- have contributed original art of Daredevil, Captain Marvel, Medusa, Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Iron Fist, Iron Man, The Hulk and Ant-Man to a "superhero edition" of ESPN Magazine's famous "Body Issue," an annual celebration of athletic physiques (with lots of pictures of naked people).

Marvel really isn’t holding anything back when it comes to the Ant-Man previews, and with a little over a week to go before the film hits theaters, we have officially reached Peak Marketing. The studio has released an extended IMAX preview for the film, which runs at just under six minutes in length and features new footage mixed with stuff we’ve seen in previous trailers and TV spots.

Last week, Marvel released the first in a series of Ant-Man viral videos, which set out to give Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang a little more backstory and connect the studio’s newest hero to the larger MCU. The second viral video has arrived today, and it once again features Leslie Bibb’s reporter Christine Everhart (last seen in the Iron Man films) shedding some light on Lang.

Did you know there's a superhero called Ant-Man, and that he's going to be starring in a major motion picture later this month? Have you also been living with three other people in a bunker run by a mysterious man who thinks he has what it takes to be on The Apprentice (RIP) for the last twenty years? There's a lot of hype surrounding the pint-sized Marvel hero these days, and in an effort to serve the fervor surrounding Ant-Man, Hasbro is releasing a limited box set featuring the original Ant-Man, Hank Pym, in some of his most famous incarnations. Throughout the years, Hank Pym has been many heroes. Though he's most synonymous with the Ant-Man persona, Pym has also been Giant-Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, and the Wasp. He also accidentally created the genocidal artificial intelligence Ultron, but since that's not what happened in the movies, it doesn't count in real life any more. And as luck (and keen marketing) would have it, almost all of those alternate identities are captured here in the San Diego Comic-Con exclusive set.