Much has been made of the absence of Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye from the Avengers: Infinity War promos, but there is another Marvel superhero who has also gone missing.
Clint Barton had a place on the huge Comic-Con banner for the MCU film, but Paul Rudd's Ant-Man didn't even feature in that.
Scott Lang has been conspicuously missing from the trailers and posters for Joe and Anthony Russo's team-up movie. So where is the tiniest Avenger and how will he factor in to the battle against Thanos?
Invisible or absent?
Firstly, despite assumptions to the contrary, there doesn't actually seem to be any concrete confirmation that Rudd will appear in the movie at all. The best evidence of his involvement are some pictures of him on set with Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange).
But the timing of the photos, which were taken in July 2017, puts them at about halfway through the back-to-back shooting of Infinity War and its untitled sequel. In other words, it's not possible at this point to assert which film those scenes will appear in.
Rudd is pretty much bound to appear in Avengers 4, as Evangeline Lilly has already confirmed that his partner The Wasp will be in the latter movie, but not the former, and he is her link to the rest of the superheroes.
This isn't to say that Ant-Man is definitely not going to be a part of Infinity War – just that we can't know either way for the time being.
What would his role be?
Ant-Man's first brush with Avengers membership was in Captain America: Civil War, where he sided with Steve Rogers against Iron Man and the pro-Sokovia Accords heroes. The film ended with Scott being rescued from the Raft prison along with his new allies.
The last we saw of Ant-Man was in the Avengers: Infinity War Prelude comic. While other rogue heroes like Black Widow and Falcon teamed up with Captain America to fight crime from the shadows, Scott was reunited with his daughter instead (much like Hawkeye and his family, funnily enough).
So while most of the rogue Avengers have been running around the globe, Ant-Man probably hasn't been with them. If he does show up, maybe it will be to ride to the rescue in the final act – perhaps mirroring Hawkeye again, or even arriving by his side.
Or maybe he'll be held in reserve until Avengers 4.
What about Ant-Man and the Wasp?
This year will see the release not only of Avengers: Infinity War, but Ant-Man and the Wasp too. Judging by the trailer, it appears that Scott has returned home under some sort of house arrest/probationary conditions.
Either this leads directly out of Civil War or his actions in Infinity War lead to the authorities allowing him to reunite with his daughter Cassie under supervision.
Until Marvel gives us more information, it's hard to know exactly how these pieces will fit together. Does Ant-Man and the Wasp occur at the same time as Infinity War, before, or after? What we do know, via the Russos, is that the two movies will be closely linked.
Until then, we'll keep an eye out for Ant-Man and make sure that he isn't getting into the sandwiches.
Avengers: Infinity War will be released in the UK on April 26 and in the US on April 27.
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