Yesterday Comic Con attendees who showed up at the Joss Whedon Experience came out claiming that Joss Whedon had announced Serenity star Nathan Filliion would be playing Ant-Man in his upcoming Avengers movie. He isn’t and Fillion and Whedon have both since confirmed that he was joking and wondered why no one at Comic Con has a sense of humor. My theory is that they lose it some time around hour two of standing in the sun outside waiting in line to get in. It’s understandable.
So why isn’t Whedon considering Fillion for the part? They’ve worked together and he seems like a natural fit. Answer: Because Ant-Man isn’t in The Avengers.
Though in the comics the character was one of the founding members of the Marvel superhero team, in an interview with io9 Whedon reveals, “Ant-Man does not appear in The Avengers.”
Ant-Man is out. It makes sense. He’s not a very well known or for that matter integral character and the cast is already pretty big. If you’re going to add a new superhero into the mix, you’d think they might want to use a female character. Wasp, for instance, has been rumored.
So who is in Whedon’s Avengers movie? You can count on Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Hulk being there, but anyone else? Whedon isn’t saying but he does offer clues about what his vision for the project is. He says, “It just really just goes back to the very first incarnation of The Avengers. It goes to The Ultimates, it goes to everything about it. It makes no sense, it's ridiculous. There's a thunder god, there's a green "ID" giant rage monster, there's Captain America from the 40s, there's Tony Stark who definitely doesn't get along with anybody. Ultimately these people don't belong together and the whole movie is about finding yourself from community. And finding that you not only belong together but you need each other, very much. Obviously this will be expressed through punching but it will be the heart of the film.”
