Laurence Fishburne is playing a major ‘Ant-Man’ supporting character, Bill Foster, in the sequel ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’. In the comics, Foster was one of Hank Pym’s fellow scientists who replicated Pym’s size-changing powers to become the superhero Black Goliath. We do know that Fishburne’s Foster worked at something called Project: Goliath and that resulted in him gaining growing powers, although not as drastic as those displayed by Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) in the movies.
But the timeline of the movies is much different than that in the comics. Essentially, our Ant-Man is Scott Lang, while our Wasp is Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). We know that Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) operated as a prototypical version as the duo in the past, but those days are behind them. And considering that Fishburne is 56 years-old, it would be natural to assume that whatever exploits he had with Project: Goliath, are probably also in the past. Or are they?
Executive producer Stephen Broussard discussed Fishburne’s role in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’, saying:
“He’s Dr. Bill Foster, the classic guy from the books and this version of him in the MCU is a colleague of Hank’s that they used to work together and perhaps had a falling out, but in a time of need, in this movie, he’s gotta go — Hank has to return to him and ask him for help.”
Of course, Broussard wasn’t completely forthcoming when asked if viewers would see Fishburne in his own Goliath suit:
“Maybe. The idea would be that perhaps they had worked together in the past on a lot of projects including some of the shrinking and growing tech. How that plays into this story, I think we’d rather leave unsaid for the moment.”
Obviously, Broussard can’t divulge too much, but honestly, let’s just take that as a really wordy “no.” Despite Fishburne’s action hero past (‘The Matrix’ trilogy), he is probably not looking to take on such a physical role as a mainstream Marvel hero and if Marvel wanted a Black Goliath (or just plain Goliath or Giant-Man), they’d have sought out a younger actor that they could reuse in at least three or four movies. But with Rudd’s Ant-Man and now The Wasp, in play, there’s really no need for another size-changing hero.
Maybe a few years down the line, after Rudd is ready to walk away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Goliath/Goliath/Giant-Man’s time will come.
Directed by Peyton Reed, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Hannah John-Kamen, David Dastmalchian, Laurence Fishburne, Abby Ryder Fortson, Walton Goggins, Judy Greer, Joshua Mikel, Randall Park, Michael Peña and T.I. with Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer, and opens on July 6, 2018.
Source: Screen Rant
