Guardians of the Galaxy showed that the Marvel name and brand is a powerful one with audiences. Even though the general public wasn’t familiar with the likes of Star-Lord, Drax and Rocket Raccoon, people trusted that a Marvel film would be good and packed theaters in response. (Saturday Night Live even created a skit making fun of Marvel’s good fortune.)
But is the studio just a tiny bit worried about its upcoming Ant-Man? Probably not. The Marvel name is all over it. Disney is giving the movie nice promotion on ABC during the NBA Finals. Trailers and ads have shown that the tone of the film will be comedic, as you’d expect with Paul Rudd starring, but probably action-filled and heroic. The latest one actually mentions the Avengers, just to let you know that Ant-Man is in the same universe as the characters you’re already familiar with.
However, just in case, a new set of posters is here to remind us that Ant-Man is a Marvel character who’s associated with the Avengers. (Ant-Man was an original member of the team in the comic books, but how much of a connection he’ll have in this movie is unclear. Though we do know that Rudd will be in next year’s Captain America: Civil War. Perhaps he’ll join the team from there.) In the posters, Marvel’s newest hero poses with Thor and Captain America. Well, sort of. Here’s the one sheet featuring Iron Man.
Ant-Man — also starring Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Pena — hits theaters on July 17.
