The director of “Ant-Man” spills on the latest Marvel heroine to join the movie, and we’re here for it

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is adding a new female superhero to its ranks. The Wasp is officially joining the Ant-Man part of the MCU, and director Peyton Reed is just as thrilled as we are. He recently talked to MovieFone about the upcoming sequel to Ant-Man. It’s entitled Ant-Man and the Wasp, and we are HERE FOR IT.

Ant-Man and the Wasp won’t land in theaters until 2018, so it’s still in the early phases. Says Reed, “We're in the writing phase right now and we start official prep this month. So it's sort of long-lead prep, but we're starting to get into all of the visual development stuff, and it's really exciting.

We know some of that will probably include a superhero suit for Hope Van Dyne, played by Evangeline Lilly (Though she’s Hank Pym’s daughter, the character and her father are estranged, so she goes by her mother’s last name).

Lilly’s Wasp will also be in Avengers 4, which Reed acknowledges, is kind of scary. After all, Marvel films keep topping themselves – anyone who saw Captain America: Civil War could tell you that. So, clearly, as a director of the smaller MCU franchises, the bar can get raised rather high.

Reed seems to be okay with it, overall, though. Of the upcoming Ant-Man sequel as part of the larger cinematic universe, he says, “We get to see the Wasp debut — we're all about the Wasp and Ant-Man. So I like it, because we spend a lot of time with our different writers and directors, and there's a lot of crosstalk, and I love that.

Collaboration is obviously an important part of the MCU, especially with all its connective threads. And with Wasp getting her debut soon after Avengers: Infinity War, that dialogue between filmmakers is going to be super important.

Overall, it seems like Reed is truly enthusiastic about Hope Van Dyne taking center stage.

“Well, I'm just personally excited to get to introduce yet another character into the Marvel Universe. After Ant-Man, now we get to see Wasp, so really designing her look, the way she moves, the power set, and figuring out, sort of, who Hope van Dyne is as a hero – because we know her in a certain context in the first movie, but now she's going to have her coming out party – that's exciting!

Ant-Man’s sequel may be over a year away, but we know we’re counting down until the Wasp gets her big screen debut.