Ant-Man And The Wasp

With the epoch-defining franchise now entering its second decade, it’s pretty much a given that any actor signing on to a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can expect to be in it for the long haul. And I do mean anyone. While you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that, say, Tom Holland is sticking around, you might not expect Marvel to have much in the way of plans for characters like Cassie Lang, played by Abby Ryder Fortson. But, in the course of promoting ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’, Fortson seemed to suggest that that is very much the case.

Speaking about Cassie’s role in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ and how she has changed since we last saw her in ‘Ant-Man’, Fortson had this to say:

“I think in this movie she really shows that she’s really interested in becoming a superhero. In the last movie, she doesn’t really wrap her head around it, so in this movie, she really wants to fight with her dad.”

While we don’t yet know what shape it will take in the finished film, that certainly sounds like the sort of character arc that could lead Cassie to take on a superheroic identity of her own. When asked what that identity might be, Fortson replied, simply, “Stature.”

Like her cinematic counterpart, the comic book version of Cassie Lang (introduced in 1979’s ‘Marvel Premier #47’) is the daughter of the second Ant-Man, reformed thief turned superhero Scott Lang. Growing up in Scott’s custody, Cassie greatly admired her father, eventually learning his dual identity. This, in turn, would lead her to experiment with Ant-Man tech on her own, and eventually to take on the costumed identity of Stature as a member of the Young Avengers.

But while it may be Marvel’s intent to translate that arc to the big screen, there’s no guarantee that Fortson, who celebrated her tenth birthday earlier this year, will be the one to bring Stature to life. While Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has himself spoken about the potential of Cassie’s future as Stature, there are a elephants in the room. In addition to Fortson’s young age (which likely makes any plans for Stature a long term thing), there’s also the small matter (pun very much intended) of a certain ‘Avengers 4’ casting rumor. While there has yet to be any official word on the subject, rumors began to surface prior to the April release of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ that Emma Fuhrmann had signed on to ‘Avengers 4’ as an older version of Cassie Lang (Fuhrman is sixteen as of this writing). This in  turn is tied into rumors that ‘Avengers 4’ may feature some a time skip or a plot that includes time travel and/or dimension hopping.

Be sure to check back with ScienceFiction.com for more on ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ as it becomes available!

Helmed by returning director Peyton Reed, ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ stars Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, Walton Goggins, Bobby Cannavale, Judy Greer, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Laurence Fishburne. The film is set to arrive in theaters on July 6, 2018.