Ant-Man and the wasp

Whenever Marvel Studios takes the stage at San Diego Comic-Con, True Believers expect big things. Once again, the House of Ideas did not disappoint as they dropped some major bombs for upcoming projects like ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and ‘Captain Marvel’. But that wasn’t all as they had a few small announcements as well. Although in this case, very big things come in small packages.

During their Hall H panel on Saturday night, Marvel revealed that Peyton Reed’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ has added a few extremely sci-fi genre heavy hitters to the cast. First, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed that Michelle Pfeiffer would be playing Janet Van Dyne, the mother of Evangeline Lilly’s Hope Van Dyne and the original Wasp. While the character briefly appeared in ‘Ant-Man’ before her presence played a part in the proceedings, it would seem that the role has been expanded for the sequel and they’re calling in the big guns to bring the founding member of the Avengers’ comic book counterpart to life. And aside from already having some previous comic book movie experience in Tim Burton’s ‘Batman Returns’ as Catwoman, Feige shared that the actress was their “dream choice when we were making the first film”.

Then, coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe straight from Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the Matrix, and Metropolis, it was announced that Laurence Fishburne would be playing Dr. Bill Foster. However, instead of portraying him as the size-shifting hero Goliath (who also went by Black Goliath and Giant-Man at other points in his history) that is probably best known for tragically becoming one of the first casualties in the comic version of ‘Civil War’, Fishburne’s Foster will be the villain of the film. Like Darren Cross, Dr. Foster will have connections to Pym as they once worked alongside one another. No word yet on when that relationship soured, but we’re sure to find that out sooner rather than later.

And finally, the panel also revealed the previously unknown roles of Walton Goggins and Hannah John-Kamen. Goggins will play Sonny Burch, the chairman of advanced weapons designer firm Cross Technologies. In the comics, Burch has connections to Obadiah Stane and often butts heads with Tony Stark, but as they tend to do for the big screen adaptation, things will probably be changed around a little bit. As for John-Kamen, she’ll take on the role of The Ghost, an extremely mysterious and dangerous assassin who was once a promising data engineer that developed a series of computer chips capable of making things intangible. Again, Ghost was primarily an adversary of Iron Man in the comics, but the MCU equivalent will instead tango with Scott Lang and the gang.

With some rather big names joining the fun, we now have even more to look forward to when it comes to ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’. But as we anxiously await even more information regarding the upcoming sequel, let us know what you think of the latest castings in the comments below.

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Laurence Fisburne, Michael Peña, David Dastmalchian, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Randall Park, Walton Goggins, Hannah John-Kamen, and Michael Douglas hits theaters on July 6, 2018.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter