1) Spider-Man Was a Coincidence
At the end of the film as Falcon (more on him in a bit) talks with a journalist. The journalist mentions there are superheroes that swing and crawl up walls, a seemingly obvious nod to Spider-Man now that the character is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while this line of dialogue is now our first MCU mention of Spider-Man, that was not the original intention.
“When that was shot, that was before the whole [Spider-Man] thing had happened,” explained Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. “It really was just her listing relatively generic powers leading into Falcon saying, ‘I’m looking for someone who shrinks.’ Now that the Spider-Man deal has been announced, it takes on a different connotation.”
Director Peyton Reed agreed.
“The important thing in this movie is that—at the end of the movie, as a result of his run-in with The Falcon—the Avengers [are looking for Ant-Man],” he said. “We don’t know why yet—we don’t know what’s going to happen, but, it had to come through Falcon, so we created this journalist character. And so, it kinda came out as this thing, and… now we know, Spider-Man is going to be a part of the larger MCU, which is incredibly exciting.”