The Astonishing Ant-Men

Marvel Studios just doesn't seem to rest. Not content with having both the second Captain America movie and Guardians of the Galaxy coming out this year, they're already planning for after Avengers 2 next year. The latest news is the casting of the Co-Leads of Edgar Wright's Ant-Man. Our lucky shrinking men? Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.

The Ant-Man gear

The two have been cast, respectively, as Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Who are they and who the hell is Ant-Man? Allow me to explain.

Hank Pym as Ant-Man

To start with, Ant-Man is a Marvel superhero from the 60s. He's sort of the forgotten hero of the era as he never broke out in any meaningful way unlike his contemporaries Spider-Man and Iron Man. Ant-Man was one of the founders of the Avengers in the comics and has kind of stuck with them his whole career. The basic idea is that Ant-Man was a super-scientist who found a way to shrink (and later grow) himself and built a helmet to talk with and command ants. But here's the rub, there have been a couple Ant-Men.

The original Ant-Man was Hank Pym, the guy Douglas is playing. He was the one who built all the Ant-Man gear and helped found the Avengers. So why haven't you heard of him? A couple of reasons. First, Pym changes super-identities like normal people change pants. Besides Ant-Man, he's also been Giant Man, Goliath, Yellowjacket, and the Wasp (more on that in a sec). Because of this, he's never made a real impact. Second, Pym has a reputation. In one notorious incident, an artist at Marvel misinterpreted the script and drew Pym striking his wife the Wasp (keep waiting). It was an accident but he's never really shook the wife-beater label. No wonder he keeps retiring.

Oh, and he also built Ultron the villain of Avengers 2 but that's already been changed for the movie.

So that's Douglas, but what about Rudd? Well he'll be playing Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man. Lang was a former thief who tried to reform after a stint in prison. Unfortunately, his daughter Cassie got sick so he stole Pym's Ant-Man gear to help her. He meant to bring it back, but Pym said he could keep it as long as he kept using it for good. 

What does the fact that both Ant-Men are in the movie mean? Well early news of the production said the movie would split focus between the 60s-set adventures of Pym and the modern adventures of Lang. This casting sounds like some of that has remained with Pym having been Ant-Man in the past, though given Douglas' age and health I doubt we'll see Pym's old adventures. Most likely Lang will be the protagonist and this will be a re-working of his origin story but with hints at Pym's past. I wouldn't be surprised if the two have a very Batman Beyond dynamic going on with the elder Pym advising Lang in whatever hijinks he gets into.

Scott Lang as Ant-Man

But one question remains, what about the Wasp? The Wasp aka Janet Van Dyne was Hank Pym's superhero partner and wife, she had the same shrinking powers but also wings and zappy hands. And yes, he did take the identity of the wife he once beat. To make it creepier this was after she had died. Anyway, you can't have Ant-Man without the Wasp turning up eventually so I wouldn't be surprised if we hear about her being cast soon. The interesting thing about the Wasp was that she was much more gung-ho about the whole superhero thing than Pym ever was, so maybe if she is in the Ant-Man movie she'll try to pressure him into giving her powers or get them to join the Avengers. Or maybe she will have been Pym's partner as usual but then she died and that's why he retired. This is just blind speculation on my part though.

At any rate, Marvel doesn't look to be slowing down any time soon. And as they keep going, they'll be digging deeper into the archives to bring newer, different heroes to people. That's good where I sit, but where's my Doctor Strange movie?