Having already left his mark as Perry White in the DC films universe, Laurence Fishburne is now hopping over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was announced at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer that Fishburne will appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp as Dr. Bill Foster, a longtime member of the Ant-Man comics mythos. We're less than a year away from seeing Fishburne's MCU debut, but the actor has revealed that he already has another project in the works with Marvel. He stated:
I'm developing something else for Marvel that I can't talk about. It's gonna be really cool. It's gonna change the world, we hope (laughs). I went to Marvel and pitched them something that really couldn't work out---there was a lot of legal red tape that just [was] something they couldn't work out. But then they came back with the offer for Ant-Man and the Wasp and then they said, 'Hey, what do you think of this?' and I went 'Oh yeah that, yes!' so...
It's unclear from the above quote that Laurence Fishburne gave to Collider if he will be appearing in front of the camera for this Marvel project or working behind the scenes. If it's the latter, then that means he'll be reprising Dr. Bill Foster. How he would so is less certain. A Bill Foster solo movie seems unlikely given that the Ant-Man mythos is already well represented in this franchise, not to mention that there are plenty of other corners the MCU wants to explore for Phase Four. Since Marvel doesn't have any plans to revive its One-Shot short films, my best guess is that it could be a special feature included on Ant-Man and the Wasp's home media release, or even something officially posted by Marvel online. Then there's the question of if it would take place before Ant-Man and the Wasp or after. On the other hand, if Fishburne is working on this project off camera, that narrows down the possibilities further, though we shouldn't discount that this could be something for television rather than movie-centric.
All we currently know about the MCU's version of Bill Foster is that he used to be Hank Pym's assistant, just like how his comic book counterpart started out. In the Marvel Comics universe, Bill eventually became Goliath after ingesting a formula containing Pym Particles, thus allowing him to increase his size and mass. Given that Michael Douglas' Hank Pym operated as Ant-Man for decades in the MCU, we shouldn't discount the possibility that Laurence Fishburne's Bill Foster has a history of becoming a giant.
Bill Foster is just one of several new characters who are being brought into the MCU during Ant-Man and the Wasp. It was also announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the sequel's cast would introduce Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne, Walton Goggins' Sonny Burch, Hannah John-Kamen's Ghost and Randall Park's Jimmy Woo. As for returning faces, in addition to Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas reprising their respective roles, Michael Pena, Bobby Cannavale, T.I., Judy Greer and Dave Dastmalchian will also be back.
Ant-Man and the Wasp hits theaters on July 6, 2018. If you're curious about what next year's other major releases are, look through our 2018 premiere guide.
