JEREMY RENNER To Co-Produce ‘An ANT-MAN Film'... Wait, What?
Somewhat buried towards the end of a recent Deadline interview with Jeremy Renner and his The Combine producing partner Don Handfield about the Avengers actor's burgeoning other role as a director and producer was a surprising reference to what if taken literally is a future Marvel Studios film.
Here is the full quote by Handfield, in response to Deadline writer Matt Grobar's question to Renner, ”What are your future ambitions, on both sides of the camera?"
"Jeremy gets in these big franchises and he disappears for six to nine months. We started this company to be able to make movies together, so as he gets out of Avengers, we're excited to really do what we always intended to do with the company," Handfield responded after Renner replied. "We have a couple other things coming out, a TV series for the History Channel that's coming out called Knightfall, we have an Ant-Man film we're going to announce in the next few days, in a partnership with two other companies."
Grobar confirmed for Newsarama Handfield's remarks were reported accurately. So the question becomes what did Handfield mean by ”we have an Ant-Man film we're going to announce in the next few days."
The first and perhaps most logical interpretation is he meant a humorous, action heist film in the vein or spirit of Marvel's Ant-Man, though that'd be something of an esoteric reference, as despite being well-received Ant-Man doesn't enjoy a high profile imprint on Hollywood as an example of the genre, not to mention the oddity of the choice of reference considering Renner's relationship with the MCU.
The second explanation is Renner's The Combine is co-producing the next Ant-Man film, 2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp directed by Peyton Reed (reportedly to begin production in June), or is co-producing a future other Ant-Man film.
While of course all Marvel Studios films have multiple producers, no MCU actor including A-listers Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson or Benedict Cumberbatch have received a producer's credit. Only Jon Favreau, who directed Iron Man 1 & 2 and is credited as a producer of the Avengers films, has acted in an MCU movie and given a producer's credit.
Newsarama also cannot find a history of Marvel Studios taking on independent production company partners in the same way Warner Bros.'s DC films do.
That all said, the reference does coincide with comments Renner and Ant-Man co-star Michael Douglas have made about wanting to appear together in a Marvel film.