Although the movie itself is still just under two years away from hitting theaters, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will begin filming later this summer. In a recent in-depth interview with Deadline, Michael Douglas confirmed that he’ll be heading to London this July to reprise his role as Hank Pym – the first Ant-Man – in the highly anticipated threequel.
The franchise came up when Deadline asked Douglas what his most fun experience on a movie set was and he answered, “Probably the Ant-Man films. You’re just such a small part, but you have all the incredible special effects going on and green screens.” Douglas said that this was “a whole different type of filmmaking” than he was used to, because he’d never done a big-budget blockbuster with a lot of visual effects and green screens before.
According to Douglas, a huge part of why making Ant-Man movies is so fun is working with the rest of the cast: “Paul Rudd was wonderful, Evangeline [Lilly] was great, and all of the other co-stars.” That cast is getting a little bigger in Quantumania, with Kathryn Newton taking on the role of Cassie Lang (replacing Emma Fuhrmann, who played the role after Avengers: Endgame’s five-year time jump) as she presumably takes up her superhero mantle of Stature. Plus, Jonathan Majors is joining the MCU as iconic time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror, who’s powerful enough to be the franchise’s next Thanos-level big bad.
Both Ant-Man movies have explored the Quantum Realm in increasing depth, with the first movie’s climax briefly sending Scott Lang there and the second one involving a B-plot in which Hank Pym travels into the interdimensional subworld to rescue his missing wife Janet. The fact that the second movie ended with the characters mastering the art of traveling in and out of the Quantum Realm – paired with the fact that the third one is subtitled Quantumania – suggests it’ll take even more precedence in the threequel.
Since Douglas’ character Hank Pym has been a mentor to both his estranged daughter Hope and his shrinking successor Scott Lang – and almost every MCU mentor, from Yinsen to Dr. Erskine to the Ancient One, has died to motivate their mentee to complete their hero’s journey – Hank is considered to be a strong contender for the franchise’s next major character death after the tragic loss of Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame.
But if Douglas enjoys making Marvel movies so much and he keeps bringing the same degree of nuance and warmth to the Ant-Man series that he has in the last two installments, maybe the studio will keep him around for as long as they can. With its ever-improving digital de-aging effects, Marvel Studios could even make a prequel movie about the original Ant-Man and the Wasp starring a younger-looking Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is set to arrive in theaters on February 17, 2023.
Source: Deadline