Much like Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, Tommy Lee Jones, and other fantastic veteran actors before him, Michael Douglas is about to dive head-first into a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Peyton Reed's Ant-Man, he will be playing Dr. Hank Pym, a scientist, discoverer of the shrinking matter known as Pym particles, and a former superhero. But while you may now find yourself imagining the multiple Oscar-winning actor strapping on some armor and cool tech to go fight crime, you should slow down a little. It turns out that the Marvel Studios production is stressing the "former" in "former superhero," meaning that Douglas won't actually be suiting up.
This confirmation comes from Douglas himself, who is taking a break from the filming of Ant-Man and has been up at the Toronto Film Festival promoting his new movie The Reach. While speaking to MTV, the Wall Street star made it pretty clear that he will not actually be putting on a superhero suit in the new movie, and is instead leaving all that business to Paul Rudd's Scott Lang, who is Dr. Hank Pym's Ant-Man successor in the comics. Said Douglas,
"My costume will be hung up, and Paul will be wearing it in good form."
Before some of you more sensitive fanboys begin to rant and scream about Marvel Studios not letting Hank Pym be Ant-Man on the big screen, let's not forget that Douglas may not be the only actor playing the character in the film. Back when writer/director Edgar Wright was handling things, it was confirmed that Ant-Man will actually have a flashback prologue sequence set in the 1960s at the start of the movie, presumably giving Hank Pym a tiny bit of origin story and showing off how he first discovered Pym Particles. Provided this wasn't axed when Peyton Reed took over as director and Adam McKay was hired for a script rewrite, then that means there is still a chance that we will get to see some Hank Pym/Ant-Man action in the 2015 release.
While Douglas obviously couldn't say anything about his own personal superhero costume, he did throw a few choice compliments to the look of his co-star, Paul Rudd. Apparently, the I Love You, Man actor became intensely committed to his first superhero role and came to the set of Ant-Man in incredible shape. Said Douglas,
"Paul Rudd is ripped. He’s been training and working out for this picture for a long time. He was so cut, that they had to soften his costume up, with all the built-in six-packs and all of that."
Ant-Man is currently in production, and in addition to Douglas and Rudd the movie also stars Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Pena, Abby Ryder Fortson, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, Wood Harris, John Slattery, Gregg Turkington, and T.I. Look for the film in theaters on July 17, 2015.
