The big news from the Marvel Phase03 announcement connected a few dots that have been bouncing around my head for a while.
What follows is and idea of how I believe we'll get from AoU to Civil War by way of AntMan.
Theory 1/ The word 'Inhuman' will be dropped in Age of Ultron. Scarlett Witch and Quiksilver will be on a 'journey of discovery', seeking who they are etc. We see in the teaser trailer they appear in cahoots with Ultron himself - Classic case of bad guy promising truth for co-operation from future good guy..? What SW and QS will learn is that they are 'Inhuman' - ie. Their full Kree-experiment origin/bloodline/history.
Downey has said the last page of Age of Ultron gave him 'chills'. Hemsworth said none of them were on it -
WHAT IF - By the end of Age of Ultron, something akin to the terrigen bomb (of the recent Marvel Comics Infinity series) is detonated and the MIST CLOUD SPREADS AROUND THE WORLD.
That 'chills' scene is a montage of Inhumans the world over getting their powers.
RESULT - A LOT of unregistered superheroes for Cap and Stark to fight over in CIVIL WAR.
At this point, even including AoS, we have only a handful of Supers. I realise it was stated during the Marvel Event that it won't follow comics/unmasking exactly, and be about distrust of these people. But surely not JUST the 10-15 people we currently have.
The MCU Civil War needs a lot more supers than it currently has. It needs Inhumans.
THEORY 01 - Terrigen release at end of Age of Ultron creating multiple 'supers' for Civil War and beyond.
Theory 2/ AntMan is release just 2.5 months after Age of Ultron.
When the plans for Phase Three were solidified (I'd imagine after the astonishing Guardians of the Galaxy box office proved cosmic was the way to go..) it meant AntMan needed some revision. It became a pseudo direct-sequel to Age of Ultron and it needed to, at least on the outskirts, deal with the fact A LOT of superpowered Inhumans just sprung up all over the world.
This was a BIG deviation from what the AntMan script was at the time. Changes NEEDED to be made.
THEORY 02 - Edgar Wright left the AntMan project due to 'Inhuman fallout from Age of Ultron' forcing a massive deviation from the original mandate.
Theory 3/ A large chunk of the AntMan cast will appear in Civil War, along with a large chunk from the rest of the MCU, even if only in cameo. This is the big Marvel film the year of BvS. The film compared to BvS by the end-of-year-critics. Civil War will be a movie as big as an Avengers movie in everything but title. Where exactly does AntMan fit?
THEORY 03 - Scott Lang will play the Spidey role - ie. Volentary unmasking, aligned with Stark.
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Of side note - The Inhumans film could tell the big broad story of the Royal Family, so none of the above renders that film obsolete.
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Would be interested to hear if anyone else thinks there's anything to any of that!