The writers over at Marvel decided to go in a much different direction with the villain of Ant-Man 2, and most of it is due to how high the stakes have gotten in the Marvel world as a whole these days. Spoilers below, don't say I didn't warn you.
After the events of Avengers 3, shit is looking a little rough in the Marvel universe. Thanos himself came down to whip some ass, and the stakes of that film were unbelievably high. Ditto with Black Panther; the villain was almost sympathetic, but he was also brutal, and again, brought incredibly high stakes to the film, with Wakanda herself being up for grabs. The Ant-Man films are much lower stakes, not to mention a lot more fun(ny), so they chose a villain that was a little more "corporate espionage" instead of "galaxy-breaker."
Speaking to fans through the Marvel YouTube live stream at the LA premiere, both Kevin Feige and Louis D'Esposito (Marvel Entertainment's co-president) spoke about why they chose Ghost as the villain in Ant-Man & The Wasp.
"It was our producer Stephen Broussard and Peyton Reed and our writers who're looking for a different kind of villain, a different, unique villain. We knew this film will be coming off of Thanos, will be coming off of Killmonger, how do we find a villain that is very different and very unique and when people see the movie, I think they'll see that we found it in Ghost."
The movie is already getting some good early buzz, and the decision is a smart one; much like Wonder-Woman lightened things up, Marvel (although in no way in bad shape like DC) decided to bring things down a little from the insanely high consequences and stakes of Black Panther and Avengers 3, with a villain who is more likely to steal a hot-dog from a street vendor than hit Iron Man with an entire moon.
What do you think? Do you have an opinion on Ghost? Is it interesting to have a female main antagonist, or does anyone really care? Let me know in the comments.
