Now that we have (sort of) put the whole Ant-Man/Edgar Wright controversy behind us, we can turn our attention to the very important task of further Ant-Man rumors. The latest little tidbit swirling about the film is that Marvel has begun casting a net for a young Hank Pym, otherwise portrayed in his modern-day incarnation by Michael Douglas. The casting call asks for a “young Michael Douglas photo double,” but also does not call for an actor – it specifies the part as a Background or Extra role.
One of the major questions surrounding Ant-Man has been whether Michael Douglas will play both the elder Pym and his 60s-era persona, the latter presumably with the help of some de-aging CGI. With this casting call, we can begin to speculate that Douglas will be playing Pym through the ages, with a younger body double used and mapped with Douglas’s features. Either that or we’ll only be seeing the younger Pym briefly, which doesn’t seem as likely. If you go to the trouble of hiring Michael Douglas, you can spend the money to CGI him into a younger form.
It’s nice to hear something new about Ant-Man that does not involve how annoyed everyone is about Edgar Wright’s departure. Does that fact still grate? Yeah, of course it does, but Marvel is going to move on with what they want Ant-Man to be. Personally, I lost interest in the film the minute that Wright departed, but I’m sure that others still want to see what new director Peyton Reed and his cast have in store.
So if you know anyone who’s a dead ringer for a young Michael Douglas, I suggest you tell them to send some headshots over to Marvel. After all, there are worse things to be than a CGI’d body double in Ant-Man.
