It doesn’t sit well with fans that Iron Man: 3 and Thor: The Dark World were considered the beginning of Phase 2 in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. It would make a lot more sense if, together, they had closed out Phase 1, but that’s not the case.
This is because they didn’t feel different from the films in Phase 1, and they didn’t actually serve as a true beginning to one, at least not as we’ve come to know from Marvel’s world-building. The way the battle of New York from Avengers influences Stark and Thor is more of a nod to the first phase. It wasn’t until Captain America: The Winter Soldier that Phase 2 really seemed to kick into high gear.
That aside, I’ve completely ignored the reason you’re here by droning on about phases and other films in the Marvel Universe. Let’s get to the important question: Is Ant-Man in Phase 2 or Phase 3?
What Phase is Ant-Man In?
The reason I went into all that nonsense about Iron Man: 3 and Thor: The Dark World is because if Ant-Man were at the beginning of Phase 3, it would be a similar situation as those films presented. That being said, we have official confirmation that Ant-Man does not mark the beginning of a new storytelling phase.
That’s why it’s good to hear Marvel moved it back to Phase 2. Ant-Man actually marks the end of the second phase in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After Paul Rudd’s version of Scott Lang hits the big screen, we’ll officially be entering Phase 3 with Captain America: Civil War.
I’ll give you a moment to cheer.
Ant-Man drops on July 17, 2015, and we won’t see another Marvel film again until Civil War hits theaters on May 6, 2016.
Marvel has announced that Ant-Man is the end of phase 2 with Captain America: Civil War being the first film of phase 3. Ant-Man was at first going to be the first film of Phase 3 but i don’t know the reason why they switched phases for Ant-Man.
Im pretty sure it’s Phase 2 mainly because Marvel announced all of the movies that was going to be in Phase 3 and did not include Ant-Man in it.. The only assumption we can take with that is that Ant-Man will indeed close out Phase 2. I never really saw the other movies as an entering point and closing point of each phase. I always figured that ever since Thor 1 came out, they were already leading towards the Infinity Gauntlet/War the moment they introduced the Tesseract. All movies since then leads to that end point. The only movie that never really mentioned the stones was Iron Man 3, and that was mainly because that was their introduction to Stark making Ultron; and Captain America: Winter Soldier in which the story never really focused on the stones as much as they really focused on the demise of SHIELD (which will be an introduction to Civil War).. Other than that, each movie that came out really told the story of the Stones like Age of Ultron, Thor: The Dark World, and Guardians of the Galaxy. The only real thing I see Ant-Man doing is probably bringing another depth into the next movie which will be Civil War.
makes more sense to me to have Avengers movies end each phase. Ant-Man as a phase 2 movie feels like having a filler episode be a season finale for a TV show
Thanks for the comment!
I see your point, but it has more to do with the overarching story. The first Phase 3 film will introduce concepts that will eventually be explored later in the phase. Ant-Man probably doesn’t do that.