Surprise: ‘Infinity War’ Might Be More Like ‘Ant-Man’ Than Other MCU Films

Other than previous ensemble team-ups like the two Avengers movies and Captain America: Civil War, the unlikely MCU film that Infinity War might resemble the most is actually Ant-Man.

Based on new comments from co-director Anthony Russo, it looks like Infinity War will actually be a “heist film” — the only other Marvel film to explore that genre was Ant-Man, in which ex-con Scott Lang was recruited by the original Ant-Man for his burglary skills. But this time around, Thanos is the main character and the “heist” in question is his quest for the Infinity Stones.

In an interview with CNET published Wednesday, Joe and Anthony Russo talked about drawing inspiration from ‘90s heist films when they were making Infinity War.

Boss of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige called Thanos the “main character” of Infinity War back in February, and the Russos clarified that in the movie, Thanos is “entering the storytelling in a very bold, strong way, to the degree that he’s almost one of the leads.”

Thanos’ narrative “leans heavily on a heist film in the fact that he’s going after the infinity stones in a much bolder, successful way than he has in the past.” The most we’ve seen Thanos do in the MCU thus far basically includes standing up. But in Infinity War, he’ll be sweeping through the universe stealing the Infinity Stones. “We looked at a lot of movies that had that heist-style energy to them,” Anthony Russo said, “[and] that brought some inspiration.”

But whereas that “heist-style energy” made Ant-Man a lot of fun, it might have the opposite effect in Infinity War, where Thanos keeps outsmarting, and overpowering, the Marvel heroes: “The entire movie has that energy of the bad guy being one step ahead of the heroes.”

We’re still waiting on an official Infinity War trailer, but chances are we’ll see Thanos hatching some plans to get his hands on the Infinity Stones.

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters May 4, 2018.