Home Entertainment It's official! Marvel casts Michael Douglas as ANT-MAN… no, the other Ant-Man!

It's official! Marvel casts Michael Douglas as ANT-MAN… no, the other Ant-Man!

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I know what you’re thinking, and ewwww… do you think about your mother with that brain? For the rest of you not named Darryn Bonthuys, I know what you’re thinking as well. That headline makes no sense seeing as how Marvel has already confirmed that Paul Rudd will be Ant-Man in writer/director Edgar Wright’s upcoming adventure, right? Correct. He just won’t be the first Ant-Man.

MichaelDouglas,AntMan

When it was first revealed some years ago that Wright would be doing an Ant-Man film, he stated that the initial idea that he had would be to include both Hank Pym – the original hero named Ant-Man and also the genius scientist who created the tech that gives him his size changing abilities – and Scott Lang – an electronics expert and the second superhero to adopt the Ant-Man name, but who came by the tech after he initially tried to steal it to help him in a burglary he was planning so as to get money to help his sick daughter.

Here’s how Wright explained it to SuperHeroHype at the time:

The idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both… Henry Pym and Scott Lang. So you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60’s, in sort of ‘Tales to Astonish’ mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang’s story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him.

Since then though, despite some rumblings here and there about Lang, the talk has been almost solely about Pym, which led many to believe that when Rudd’s name first popped up, that he would be playing the popular Avenger.

The Scott Lang involvement angle was given a major boost recently though, when Wright posted the following image online stating it was part of his “homework” for the movie.

Edgar-Wright-Ant-Man-homework-550x275

At first glance, it looks just some kind of cartoonish representation of Ant-Man’s iconic helmet, but it was revealed that it was in fact a still from an episode of the animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, specifically the episode adapting Marvel Premiere #47 in which Lang tried to steal Pym’s tech, before befriending the older hero and becoming his successor.

And now Marvel have officially confirmed that Paul Rudd will in fact be playing Scott Lang, while the role of the older Hank Pym will be played by veteran actor and Oscar winner Michael Douglas. Casting an actor of Douglas’s caliber and prestige is a massive coup, just the second major casting call in less than a year after it was revealed in mid-2013 that James Spader would be playing the main baddie, Ultron, in Avengers: The Age of Ultron.

Speaking of Ultron, this casting actually creates a very interesting opportunity. In the Marvel Comics universe, Hank Pym is the inadvertent creator of the megalomaniacal Ultron. It is one of his biggest character traits, which is why some fans greeted the news that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe it would probably be Tony Stark that creates Ultron with some unrest. But now, this may just allow both scenarios to be true. If Wright sticks to his original timeline idea, what’s to say that it’s not some work that Pym does in the 1960’s that Stark merely finishes or is inspired by to create Ultron in the modern day? It would actually make a hell of lot of sense, and immediately make Pym a proper part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Here’s the full press release:

Michael Douglas has stepped into some of the biggest–or should that be tiniest?–shoes of his career.

The two-time Academy Award-winning actor will join director Edgar Wright and Paul Rudd in Marvel’s “Ant-Man,” hitting theaters July 31, 2015.

“With Hank Pym’s rich history in the Marvel Universe, we knew we needed an actor capable of bringing the weight and stature to the role that the character deserves,” said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “We felt incredibly relieved when Michael Douglas agreed to step into the part with the charm and fortitude he brings to every character he inhabits, and couldn’t be more excited to see what he will do to bring Hank Pym to life.”

The legendary actor, who earned an Academy Award in the category of Best Actor in a Leading Role for his iconic portrayal of Gordon Gecko in “Wall Street,” has also starred in numerous modern classics including “Basic Instinct,” “Fatal Attraction,” “The Game,” “Wonder Boys,” “Traffic” and many more. In addition to acting, Douglas has also served as Producer and Executive Producer on a number of films including “Romancing the Stone,” John Carpenter’s “Starman” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” for which he also won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Most recently, Douglas earned a Golden Globe and his first Primetime Emmy Award for his role as legendary entertainer Liberace in the HBO original film “Behind the Candelabra.”

Douglas will star as Hank Pym, who first appeared in TALES TO ASTONISH #27 (Jan. 1962), with Rudd starring as Scott Lang in the film.

Last Updated: January 14, 2014

One Comment

  1. Ok, starting to look awesome. They had my attention with Edgar Wright, but it is shaping up nicely.

    Reply

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