Ant-Man 3 may already be in the works at Marvel Studios

‘Ant-Man’ star Michael Douglas has apparently heard rumblings about a potential third film in the franchise.

The Ant-Man franchise has been a success for Marvel Studios, with two films that both proved to be critical and financial successes. Based on this, many assume a third (and likely final) installment is in on horizon, but nothing has been confirmed. But according to one of the franchise’s stars, it looks like a threequel is in the cards.

During a recent appearance on ET, Michael Douglas revealed that he’s heard talk of another Ant-Man movie. But as of right now, these plans are not official:

"“There’s been talk [about another Ant-Man]… [but] there’s been nothing formal right now that I know of. They always kind of spring it on me. The first time you hear about it, it’s already in its third rewrite.”"

Marvel Studios has proven to have a fondness for trilogies, which they’ve shown with the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor franchises. It’s understandable that they would want to continue this trend with the Ant-Man series. Not only that, but leaving the series with only two films would be odd, given their track record.

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There’s also the matter of the solid box office performances of the first two movies. Back in 2015, Ant-Man opened with $57.2 million and went on to finish its run with $519.3 million worldwide. While this was a smaller cume for an MCU flick, it had a budget of $130 million, a significantly smaller budget than most installments in the franchise. Last year, Ant-Man and the Wasp also found success, as it opened to $75.8 million and finished with a global haul of $622.8 million. And like its predecessor, it also cost Marvel less money to make.

The series’ director, Peyton Reed, has also put some thought into what he would like to do with a third film. From the moment he signed on for the original, he envisioned a trilogy and has already shared some of his ideas with the folks at Marvel.

Based on the prior success of the series and potential ideas for the future, Marvel giving fans one more big screen adventure with the tiny Avenger makes sense.