(SPOILER ALERT) How "Avengers: Infinity War" May Have Hurt "Ant-Man and the Wasp" Even as It's Given Another Upcoming Film a Huge Boost (SPOILER ALERT)

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR






















LAST CHANCE!





















Okay, anyone who's seen Avengers: Infinity War knows by now that the film begins (and ends) with the death and apparent death of several characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including four deaths at the hands of Thanos and/or his henchmen and nearly a dozen deaths that happen instantaneously when Thanos, having assembled all of the Infinity Stones, snaps his fingers and extinguishes half of all life in the universe. The film ends with Marvel's beloved end-credits stinger, with a crumbling-to-dust Nick Fury using an old-school pager to make an emergency call, the recipient of which is identified solely by a symbol that flashes on the tiny display of the pager.

Marvel Comics geeks will instantly recognize that symbol as the insignia borne by Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel.

Marvel Studios has therefore strongly suggested, if not definitively established that Captain Marvel will be key to Thanos' defeat in next year's sequel to A:IW and has, in doing so, has virtually guaranteed that a significant percentage of the tens of millions of movie viewers all around the world whose patronage powered A:IW to a record-crushing $641 million opening weekend (without China!) will want to check out Captain Marvel's solo film which is due out in March of next year. While the Marvel badge has, over the years, proved to be the closest thing to a guarantee of box-office success, this little tidbit has all but guaranteed generous box-office returns for Marvel's first female-anchored superhero film, assuming the film itself is a decent product. Such is the strength of the Marvel marketing machine that they they have, in general, managed to sell the heck out of even the weakest of their movies (I'm looking at you, Thor: The Dark World). That's not the big surprise.

What, to me, is surprising, is how A:IW with basically one throwaway line in the script may have subtly, ever-so-slightly undermined the chances for the breakout box-office success of Ant-Man and the Wasp, the sequel to the 2015 superhero/heist hybrid.

One of the characters mentions that neither Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye nor Scott Lang's Ant-man is in the film about a third of the way through the movie, citing the fact that they were incarcerated at the end of Captain America: Civil War and had to cut a deal to stay free, and no mention is ever made of them again. It actually makes quite a bit of sense in the context of the story because Hawkeye and Ant-Man are the only two Avengers characters with children. From a viewer's perspective, though, this line basically declares "these characters don't advance the overall narrative." In Hawkeye's case, this isn't a problem; I'm sure Jeremy Renner appreciated the time off from dangling from wires and other bruising stunts, plus the fact that he doesn't have a standalone movie to sell. In Ant-Man's case it wouldn't have been much of a problem either, if it wasn't for the fact that Avengers: Infinity War delivered a series of emotional gut punches that left much of the audience reeling and a heck of a cliffhanger. The takeaway from the A:IW script, however, is that Ant-Man and the Wasp will have no impact whatsoever on this story.

Does that mean it won't sell? Of course not; the first Ant-Man movie made half a billion dollars with barely any connective tissue to the ongoing narrative at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I'm sure the core audience will be back for more of Scott Lang, but what about the millions of new viewers won over by Black Panther and bowled over by Avengers: Infinity War, and who will no doubt be eagerly anticipating the next chapter in the story? They've just been told that Ant-Man and the Wasp will basically have nothing to do with A:IW.

In truth, it's to Marvel's credit that they were willing to leave all that money on the table rather than force some kind of connection to the larger narrative; they're letting Ant-Man and the Wasp stand or fall on its own merits. It's just a bit surprising considering that just about every one of the 18 films leading into Avengers: Infinity War was tied into it somehow, to see Marvel categorically declaring that this one stands on its own. Perhaps it's the start of a new era of confidence in their product where they content to let movies stand on their own and not be inextricably woven into one big meganarrative, who knows?