Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Peña and Michael Douglas return for the highly anticipated “Ant-Man” sequel

BURBANK, CALIF. (August 1, 2017)—Marvel Studios announced today that production has begun on “Ant-Man and The Wasp,” starring Paul Rudd (“Captain America: Civil War,”  “The Fundamentals of Caring”), Evangeline Lilly (“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” “Lost”),  Michael Peña (“The Martian,” “Fury”) and Academy Award® winner Michael Douglas (“Behind the Candelabra,” “Wall Street”),  who all return to the roles they originated in the 2015 box office hit “Ant-Man.”  Bobby Cannavale (“Vinyl,” “Chef”), Judy Greer (“War for the Planet of the Apes,” “Wilson”), Abby Ryder Fortson (“Togetherness,” “Transparent”), Tip “T.I.” Harris (“Sleepless,” “Get Hard”) and David Dastmalchian (“Twin Peaks,” “The Belko Experiment”) also reprise their supporting roles.

The highly-anticipated follow-up welcomes Academy Award® nominees Michelle Pfeiffer (“The Wizard of Lies,” upcoming “Murder on the Orient Express”) and Laurence Fishburne (“John Wick: Chapter 2,” “The Matrix”), along with Hannah John-Kamen (“Black Mirror,” “Ready Player One”), Walton Goggins (“Vice Principals,” “Six”) and Randall Park (“Veep,” “Fresh Off the Boat”) to the ensemble cast.

“Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed (“Yes Man,” “The Break-Up”) returns to helm Marvel Studios’ action-adventure from a screenplay by Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer & Gabriel Ferrari, and Paul Rudd. The film, which opens in U.S. theaters on July 6, 2018, will be filmed in Atlanta and San Francisco.

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes a new chapter featuring heroes with the astonishing ability to shrink: “Ant-Man and The Wasp.”  In the aftermath of “Captain America:  Civil War,” Scott Lang (Rudd) grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father.  As he struggles to rebalance his home life with his responsibilities as Ant-Man, he’s confronted by Hope van Dyne (Lilly) and Dr. Hank Pym (Douglas) with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside The Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from their past.

Marvel Studios’’ “Ant-Man and The Wasp” is produced by Kevin Feige with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Stephen Broussard, Charles Newirth and Stan Lee serving as executive producers.

The director’s creative brain trust includes Academy Award®-nominated director of photography Dante Spinotti (“L.A. Confidential”), production designer Shepherd Frankel (“Ant-Man”), costume designer Louise Frogley (“Spider-Man:  Homecoming”), visuals effects supervisor Stephane Ceretti (“Doctor Strange”) and seven-time Academy Award® nominee, special effects supervisor Dan Sudick (“Captain America: Civil War”).

Marvel Studios continued its unprecedented success with the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” on May 5, which topped the opening weekend box office with a domestic take of over $146 million and has gone on to garner over $860 million at the worldwide box office to date.

On July 7, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” opened at #1 with an opening weekend box office of $117 million and has earned a worldwide box office of over $633 million to date.

In 2016, Marvel Studios released “Captain America: Civil War,” which opened on May 6 with the fifth largest opening weekend of all time and has since garnered box office receipts of over $1.15 billion worldwide.

The juggernaut studio ended last year with its newest Super Hero “Doctor Strange,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Rachel McAdams. The film opened #1 at the box office on November 4 and went on to gross more than $677 million worldwide to date. The two films propelled Marvel Studios’ #1 domestic box-office opening streak to a record-breaking 14 consecutive films.

Marvel Studios’ other epic big-screen adventures include “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Iron Man 3,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Ant-Man” and the upcoming “Thor: Ragnarok” (November 3, 2017), “Black Panther” (February 16, 2018) and “Avengers: Infinity War” (May 4, 2018).