We’ve been speculating who will play the title character in Marvel and Edgar Wright’s upcoming Ant-Man for over a year now, and now none other than the already-rumored Paul Rudd has been confirmed to star.
The comedic-veteran was just now confirmed by Marvel to have filled Ant-Man’s sometimes-big-sometimes-small shoes, though it hasn’t yet been confirmed which “Ant-Man” will take the silver screen, Henry “Hank” Pym or Scotty Lang.
It’s a question that only really matters to long-time Ant-Man fans (Ant-Fans?), but it could be a good indication as to whether we’ll see Janet Van Dyke, also known as The Wasp, in this outing.
“When Edgar Wright came to us with the idea of Paul Rudd, we felt a huge sense of relief because the first step in creating any Marvel Studios film is finding the right star,” said Feige.
“We knew early on that we had found the right person in Paul. When he not only agreed to do it but became as enthusiastic as any actor we’d ever met with about doing the work, we knew we’d found the right guy. We couldn’t be more excited for our audiences to see what he’s going to do to bring Ant-Man to life.”
Variety notes that Rudd is known mostly for his comedy chops and not his action skills, but they also mention that Robert Downey Jr. was originally not thought to be “action-y” enough for the role of Tony Stark, and that decision turned out okay for Marvel.
Although the idea of starting with reformed thief Scotty Lang is intriguing, it’s been pretty well-theorized that Marvel will be following Henry Pym for this origin story.
After experimenting on himself (as all brilliant scientists do), he destroys the serum, but then realizes that he can use his new-found powers to bring justice to the world in the name of his deceased wife.
No word on how much of this Marvel intends to keep, or if they’ll keep Henry’s obsession with re-naming himself every chance he gets. So far he’s been Ant-Man, Giant-Man (when he used his Pym particles to – you guessed it – become giant), Yellowjacket, Goliath, and more.
Historically, Pym has always been the creator of the entity known as Ultron. We already know that he won’t be responsible for the incarnation that will terrorize The Avengers in 2015, but it will be pretty tempting to have him discussing the event with his fellow teammates once Avengers 3 rolls around.
Ant-Man is due to premiere on July 31, 2015, only a few months after Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters.