Disney announced two big changes to its summer 2015 release schedule today, with one film moving into the mix and another moving out. The opening salvo of Marvel’s Phase 3, The World’s End director Edgar Wright’s take on Ant-Man, is now targeting July 31, 2015, just three months after Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It takes over the role of Disney’s late summer tentpole from Pirates of the Carribbean 5, which could move back as far as 2016 due to ongoing script rewrites.
The other part of this whole equation may be the glut of tentpole-type films that Disney expects to distribute in 2015. Coupled with Pirates delay, moving Ant-Man to a summer release could be as simple as clearing space for Star Wars: Episode VII if it indeed keeps to a late 2015 release (it’s had its own delay rumors). As a side note: who wants to take bets on what will be the highest grossing film of 2015?