The already-bulging Phase 3 got a little bit bigger today as Marvel announced that Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne will be returning in 2018’s Ant-Man & the Wasp.  Far from being the disaster fans were fearing it would be, Ant-Man was a fun, comedy/heist film and it will be great to see Evangeline Lilly don The Wasp costume.  As it did earlier this year when it shuffled everything around to accommodate the solo Spider-Man movie, Phase 3 has been bumped around with Black Panther moving forward and Captain Marvel moving back to 2019.

Kevin Feige has recently been quoted as saying that the classic Avengers’ story comes to a conclusion post-Infinity War, but the MCU marches on.  I take that to mean we’ll see Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow retired for awhile and newer characters like Black Panther, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, and others take the lead for awhile (though we all know the old reliables will return recast eventually).  Marvel also announced three untitled movies for 2020, proving that the soon-to-be most prolific franchise in moviedom is not slowing down any time soon.  Here is the revised MCU release schedule (now up to 12 FILMS):

2016
May 6th – Captain America: Civil War
November 4th – Doctor Strange

2017
May 5th – Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
July 28th – Spider-Man
November 3rd – Thor: Ragnarok

2018
February 16th – Black Panther
May 4th – Avengers: Infinity War Part 1
July 6th – Ant-Man & the Wasp

2019
March 8th – Captain Marvel
May 3rd – Avengers: Infinity War Part 2
July 12th – The Inhumans
END OF PHASE THREE; BEGINNING OF PHASE FOUR

2020
May 1 – Untitled Release
July 10th – Untitled Release
November 6th – Untitled Release