The Wrap is reporting that Marvel Studios has cast actor Paul Rudd as its Ant-Man, the lead in the forthcoming film from director Edgar Wright and co-writer Joe Cornish. The film is set for release on 31 July 2015, and forms the start of Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Coming only a few months after Avengers: Age of Ultron, fans have already speculated on a connection between the two films. However, Wright has previously indicated that his film doesn’t have to feature Ultron,
It was never in my script. Because even just to sort of set up what Ant-Man does is enough for one movie. It’s why I think “Iron Man” is extremely successful because it keeps it really simple. You have one sort of — the villain comes from the hero’s technology. It’s simple. So I think why that film really works and why, sometimes, superhero films fail — or they have mixed results — because they have to set up a heroand a villain at the same time. And that’s really tough. And sometimes it’s unbalanced.
Which begs the question: will Rudd be playing Hank Pym or Scott Lang, with Wright previously indicating that both characters were in a version of his script.
Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, Pym first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27. The Ant-Man persona popped up in Tales to Astonish #35. The character of Eric O’Grady has also worn the mantle, while an Ultimate Comics version of Pym was a mentally fragile and abusive
