‘Ant-Man’ took some liberties with the characters from the comics, but most were happy with the outcome– a light-hearted heist flick that contrasted with the Earth-shattering epics of most of Marvel’s other super hero movies.  In the film, veteran actor Michael Douglas played Hank Pym, the scientist who invented a suit that allowed the wearer to shrink down and communicate with ants.  His career as a mini-adventurer is mostly set-up, however for the introduction of Paul Rudd’s character Scott Lang.  Even so, Pym played an important role and his daughter Hope, played by Evangeline Lilly will be adopting her own super identity as The Wasp in 2018’s follow-up, simply titled ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’.  And when asked, Douglas admitted he would be game for reprising his role in the sequel.

“I just got a call recently – they want to negotiate for a sequel and I thought “That’s great!” Hopefully, I won’t have to carry quite as much expositional dialogue as the first one but I had a wonderful time doing it. Just a great, great time. The cast was fantastic. Paul, Evangeline, Michael Peña – I’m sure he’ll be back. If they can scrape Corey Stoll off the wall, I’m sure they’ll want him too – he’s such a good villain. And Peyton too. It was a lovely experience, so you know, I welcome it. I chuckle about being involved with a movie that already has a release date in 2018. Ya know, it’s hard to conceive of that, but it’s all good, all the way around, it’s all good.”

‘Ant-Man’ opened poorly compared to other Marvel movies, but over the course of the summer, made enough money to make it a solid success.  And Rudd’s Ant-Man pops up next year in ‘Captain America: Civil War’, tying him closer to The Avengers and the core of the MCU.  Plans to introduce Lilly as The Wasp in that film were nixed in order to give her a larger unveiling in ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’.

Douglas’ desire to eschew the “expositional dialogue” is understandable, but considering that ‘Ant-Man’ was the introduction of not just a new hero, but new scientific concepts, it was necessary.  Hopefully, viewers will be up to speed when the second movie arrives.

Would you like to see Douglas return as Hank Pym?  What sort of role would you like him to play in the sequel?

‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ directed by the returning Peyton Reed will infest theaters on July 6, 2018.

Source: Collider