A lot of the focus of Ant-Man and the Wasp has been on the two title characters, but a superhero movie wouldn't be very good if there wasn't a villain. That's where Ghost, a mysterious antagonist with the ability to phase through solid matter, comes in. The character is played by Hannah John-Kamen, who is having a pretty banger 2018, having appeared in three blockbuster movies so far. It's likely that she didn't need much help to secure the role of Ghost, but when Steven Spielberg writes you a letter of recommendation, well, it certainly doesn't hurt.
It said, 'Dear Peyton. I'm excited you're doing the movie and I just want to put in the good word for Hannah. I worked with her and she was terrific. Signed, Steven Spielberg.'
Earlier this year, Hannah John-Kamen appeared in a small role for the Tomb Raider reboot. She followed that up with a larger supporting role in Ready Player One as F'Nale Zandor, an executive at a gaming company who had little trepidation about getting her hands dirty. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg, who John-Kamen made quite the impression on. It was such a good experience that Spielberg had no problem writing Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed a personal letter about how he should cast John-Kamen in the superhero sequel.
In a portfolio on Hannah John-Kamen with the Los Angeles Times, Peyton Reed detailed how he received a letter from Steven Spielberg about John-Kamen. The letter was pretty brief, but when you have a quote from Spielberg about how terrific you are, that's kind of all you really need. John-Kamen went into a bit more detail about working with Spielberg on Ready Player One, saying that the two of them would sing show tunes between scenes. (Apparently, Spielberg has a great voice).
Of course, Hannah John-Kamen was hired for more reason than just a letter from Spielberg. During her camera test, John-Kamen impressed producers with her physicality, performing stunt sequences as a part of her audition. While stunt doubles were used at points during production, the bulk of it is actually John-Kamen. Couple that with her dramatic skills and it was likely a no-brainer to hire the actress as Ghost in the fun Marvel sequel.
You don't need a letter from Spielberg to go see Ant-Man and the Wasp, out in theaters right now. The sequel is doing pretty good right now and should win the weekend by a solid amount. We're pretty into the movie over here and have already written a ton about, such as what that post-credits scene means. To find out what else is coming down the pipeline from Marvel, here's our MCU release guide.
