To Market An Ant-Man

With the recent success of Guardians of the Galaxy, one must wonder what this could mean for Marvel Studio’s next big gamble, Ant-Man. While one would assume that Marvel Studio as a brand has evolved to prove enough boost for any film franchise they will release, there is still a level of uncertainty due to the character. How do you sell or market Ant-Man? The original Ant-Man, Hank Pym invented a particle, which allows him to change his size at will and a helmet that allows him to communicate with ants. Not only will a few people be questioning the effectiveness of such a character when his future teammates consist of a super soldier, the strongest there is, a god and a man in a heavily armored suit,. but how will this character work on screen? Due to Honey, I Shrunk The Kids being a hit in theaters over two decades ago, we can believe that a person can change size and be effectively displayed on screen. But how will it work for a superhero? In a strange way, Marvel Studios and Edgar Wright already proved that it was possible due to test footage released not too long ago, as he stated he was waiting for technology to reach this exact point.

Then Wright left the project in May 2014 due to artistic differences with the company. It took them over a month to find a suitable replacement in time with Peyton Reed. While also having Adam McKay rewrite the script. This was a tough blow towards Marvel Studios as the only reason this film exists is due to Wrights ideas. As outsiders, we might never know the exact details of what transpired, it still is a huge loss on both accounts. Yet the film is still slated for July 17th, 2015 with Paul Rudd starring as Scott Lang, Michael Douglas as Dr. Henry Pym and Evangeline Lilly as his daughter, Hope Van Dyne. The villain for the film will be Darren Cross, who will be portrayed by Corey Stoll, who will also be an amalgam of the character in the comics and Yellowjacket, a persona of Henry Pym after he lost his mind.
 

An important thing to note is that the film will be released on July 17th, which is slightly more than a month after Avengers: Age of Ultron. This is the closest two Marvel Studios films have been released and they might have an interesting reason for doing so. The studio is counting on the success of the Avengers sequel to combat that of the first, so by adding an after-credit sequence that promotes Ant-Man would likely be an effective promotion of the film. Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier each had the first after-credit sequence to promote the second film that would follow after its release. The Dark World gave us a sneak peak at the Collector, while Captain America showed the twins from Age of Ultron. Strangely enough, Guardians of the Galaxy had none that marketed future films. This may be the result that Ant-Man had yet to start production and there was no footage yet to use. Still, if they aim to successfully market Ant-Man to a wider audience, there is no better place than an Avengers sequel.
 

It could be marketed in a similar way to Guardians, as the trailers made fun of the fact that no one really knew who Star-Lord was. Ant-Man is a comedic concept and playing with that element could help the film. In addition, it keeps up with the trend of trying to establish each franchise as something more than a simple superhero film. With Scott Lang being a con man, it probably would sell as a very interesting interpretation of a heist film. Make people believe that a man can shrink to an ant and break into any place he desires. Furthermore, Lang is a family man, or to be exact, a single father. That aspect is intriguing, as up until this point all superheroes had no true family at stake. Stark’s father already passed away before the film began, we never met Rogers family or that of Bruce Banner. It is a different dynamic similar to how people were fascinated by the brotherhood between Thor and Loki. How would this kind of man affect his life with this daughter? Looking at the diversity the character of Scott Lang offers, it seems a natural fit to make him the central character. As has filming just recently begun, it is unclear what is heading our way or what plans Marvel Studios has prepared, but who knows how this project will develop from this point on.