'Ant-Man and The Wasp' news, spoilers: Film is as much The Wasp's as it is Ant-Man's, director says

"Ant-Man" director Peyton Reed wants people to know that Hope Van Dyne aka The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) won't merely be a sidekick in the upcoming "Ant-Man" stand-alone, "Ant-Man and The Wasp."

According to Reed, The Wasp gets top billing alongside Scott Lang aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) in the next film because she is just as important and central to the events in it as Ant-Man is.

In an interview with Modern Myth Media, the self-confessed comic nerd said that the new dynamic is something that really excites him and his team.

"I always thought of Ant-Man and Wasp as a team and that's a lot of what the second movie is really about is how they work together, what their personal and professional relationships are like," he said.

The "Ant-Man and The Wasp" director also added that he is eager to introduce a "fully formed" Wasp into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"I mean we've introduced the character, but we haven't seen her with her full power set and everything, so to me she's not a supporting character in this movie," he explained. "It's every bit as much her movie as it is Scott Lang's."

Earlier this year, "Captain America: Civil War" writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus explained their decision to not include The Wasp in the Marvel juggernaut, telling The Huffington Post that they did not want to include what would essentially be a half-baked Wasp into a film that was already crowded with superheroes.

As McFeely said at the time, they wanted The Wasp to come into her own in the "Ant-Man" franchise.

As for what fans can expect in "Ant-Man and The Wasp," Reed said that it will have similar elements to the first film.

"Well, he's a fugitive in most of the first 'Ant-Man' movie," he said. "He's just a bigger fugitive now."

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" hits theaters July 6, 2018.