Hope van Dyne takes down a motorcyclist using her super-shrinking abilities in official concept art from the upcoming sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp. The first Ant-Man movie was released in theaters but a couple month after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes had saved the world yet again - this time from a megalomaniacal robot - in Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Arriving on the heels of that massive Marvel Cinematic Universe event, the smaller-scale Ant-Man served as something of a palate cleanser for the franchise by focusing on the struggles of a single, working-class superhero who’s more interested in doing right by his young daughter than anything else.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is aiming for something similar when it hits theaters two months after Thanos finally makes his way to earth in April’s Avengers: Infinity War. The Ant-Man sequel will similarly continue to focus its attention primarily on the characters from the first movie, including Ant-Man himself, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), and - as the title implies - his newfound partner in fighting crime, Hope aka. The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly). Since this film marks the first time that Hope has gotten to suit up in her superhero gear in the MCU, the marketing for Ant-Man and the Wasp has naturally focused more on spotlighting the latter of the titular crime fighters, more than the former.

That continues to be the case with the newly-released Ant-Man and the Wasp concept art that debuted exclusively over at Empire (see below). The artwork was posted online by the outlet along with a quote from director Peyton Reed (who also helmed the first Ant-Man), saying “It was important to me, in this movie called Ant-Man and the Wasp, that [Hope is] not a supporting character. She’s a lead character. She’s become a fully-formed hero.” Said quote comes from Reed’s larger interview with Empire, during which he also claimed that Ant-Man and the Wasp is not a romantic comedy, despite what previous reports would have you believe.

This Ant-Man and the Wasp concept art shows Hope in action as she uses her miniaturizing powers to knock down a - presumably villainous - motorcyclist, before flying away. The moment depicted here may be part of the larger chase sequence glimpsed in the first Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer, in which Scott, Hope, and Hope’s father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) - aka. the original Ant-Man - find themselves being pursued by multiple (presumed bad) men on motorcycles. Considering that Hope is shown taking down another goon by throwing a super-sized Hello Kitty PEZ dispenser at him in the trailer, the fellow included here might be getting off easy.

As lightweight as all this sounds compared to the global stakes and hard-hitting action of both Infinity War and February’s Black Panther, that’s again what makes Ant-Man and the Wasp sound like the perfect followup to Marvel Studios’ other two film releases this year. Audiences could probably use a breather by the time this weird superhero team-up adventure hits theaters, especially considering that some of their favorite characters could be dead by the time that Infinity War is over. There’s also Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 to come next year before Phase 3 of the MCU reaches its culmination, so a film that’s less intense - and highlights a female Marvel superhero no less - in-between now and then sounds like a good idea.

MORE: How Infinity War & Avengers 4 Affected the Rest of Phase 3

Source: Empire

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