Warning: SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War are ahead!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been through dark times before, but arguably none have been as sad as the final minutes of Avengers: Infinity War. With the power of all six Infinity Stones, Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped out half of all life in the universe, and we watched many heroes we've grown familiar with over the years fade away. But it wasn't all bad news, as Infinity War's post-credits scene teased the arrival of Brie Larson's Captain Marvel. Still, with Ant-Man and the Wasp being Marvel's next movie, some may have wondered why the Infinity War post-credits scene didn't feature Paul Rudd's Scott Lang to tease his next appearance. Regarding that, writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely decided that tonally Ant-Man just wasn't a good fit after all the heaviness of Infinity War. As they put it:
Christopher Markus: When you end it like that, there aren't too many extra places you can go. A lot of the time, Marvel's tags have pointed to the next movie coming or something like that. Well the next movie coming is Ant-Man and the Wasp, which by the nature of that franchise is light-hearted. You don't wanna go, 'But meanwhile! Remember Paul Rudd? Still adorable!' Tonally everything was wrong.Stephen McFeely: We wanted to give a little hope to people, and that was the best way we could think of to do it.
This franchise has never been one to shy away from humor, but Ant-Man is definitely one of the more comical heroes in the MCU. That's not to say he isn't important or doesn't have serious moments, but with Avengers: Infinity War, it probably wouldn't have worked well in the post-credits scene after seeing all that devastation for Scott Lang to suddenly grow back to normal size, take off his helmet and ask, "What did I miss?" Fortunately for fans of the character, there's only a few months left until Ant-Man and the Wasp's hits the silver screen, and with marketing kicking up a notch, it's not like people don't know Scott and crimefighting partner Hope van Dyne will soon be back.
As Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely also mentioned during their interview with Collider, it was always the plan for the Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene to reference Captain Marvel, and it did so in an intriguing way. Seeing people vanish around him, including his second-in-command, Maria Hill, Nick Fury quickly went to his car and activated a special pager-looking device he too disappeared. The camera zoomed in on the device on the ground, and the Captain Marvel insignia appeared to show that Fury's distress signal had been sent. Next year, the MCU is winding the clock back to the 1990s to show Carol Danvers' origin story in the Captain Marvel movie, during which time she'll meet Nick Fury. Two months later, Carol will fly into action in the present day to assist the surviving heroes in Avengers 4.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all the biggest updates concerning the MCU, but for now, Avengers: Infinity War is still playing in theaters, and Ant-Man and the Wasp arrives on July 6.
