Ant-Man: Major Marvel superhero is referenced in new movie

As everyone knows by now, Marvel Studios' many films are all connected. Ant-Man, despite telling a contained story of a much smaller scale than we've seen in a Marvel film for many years, still contains a lot of references to the wider Marvel cinematic universe (MCU).

There are credits scenes of course (one not far into the credits, one immediately after them, and both worth hanging around to see) but towards the end of the film there is another reference that is bound to get fans extremely excited.

WARNING: Spoilers for Ant-Man follow.

The appearance of Anthony Mackie's Falcon in the film has unfortunately made its way into promotional material. It would have been better left as a surprise but those are the breaks.

His surprisingly large cameo in the film includes a run-in with Paul Rudd's Scott Lang in his Ant-Man suit, which leaves Falcon a little embarrassed. At the end of the film we discover the winged Avenger has been trying to track Lang down.

During a sequence in which it's explained how Falcon is tracking him, we see the character talking with a reporter on a bench, asking her about a "guy who gets small". She responds by saying: "We got guys who jump. We got guys who swing. We got guys who climb up walls."

This our very first somewhat direct reference to the new Spider-Man, who will join the MCU in Captain America: Civil War next year and be played by young British actor Tom Holland. Ant-Man will also feature in the film, but we don't yet know if they will share scenes.

It has been said that this version of Spider-Man will already be an active superhero when we first see him, meaning we won't see a retread of the origin story everybody already knows.

A solo Spider-Man film will follow his Civil War debut in 2017. All of this is part of a deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures announced in February, which will bring the iconic character into the MCU alongside Iron Man, Captain America and Ant-Man.

Ant-Man is in cinemas from today (17 July).