Michael Douglas plays the all-important role of Hank Pym in the Ant-Man franchise. As the original creator and user of the titular character’s suit, Pym’s the mentor of both his protege Scott Lang and his daughter Hope Van Dyne. However, after two films as the guy in the chair, Douglas is interested in taking the lead and has said that he wants to play a young Pym in a prequel movie.
When speaking with Screen Rant, the Hollywood legend was asked where he’d like to see his character go next. Perhaps to avoid talking about Avengers 4 spoilers, Douglas decided to make his pitch for an Ant-Man spinoff starring himself as a young Hank Pym. The illusion could easily be pulled off, too, the actor argues, with a bit of computer trickery and a lookalike stunt double.
“Um, well, since we’re on this thing, I’d like to see him, if there’s magic, we do movie magic in terms of flashbacks. How about getting Hank back to his prime age as the Original Ant-Man and kick some serious ass?… I’m ready. I’m geared. I need a good stunt double. You know, I’ll find him, but now you can make me look 40 years younger let’s do the whole job!”
Douglas is no doubt inspired here by the opening to the first Ant-Man, which explained Pym’s past falling out with S.H.I.E.L.D. The flashback used cutting-edge CGI to de-age the actor by about 30 years. As Rogue One showed, it’s possible to do this sort of process throughout an entire movie, but it would probably be pretty expensive. So, if Marvel really was considering a Hank Pym film, Douglas might have to be recast.
If that’s a possibility, though, there’s certainly a lot of source material to draw from. Pym’s one of the founding members of the Avengers in the comics and was the only Ant-Man for decades, before legacy heroes such as Scott came about. While we – and Douglas – await any news on if this could be on the cards, then, Hank Pym can be seen next in Ant-Man and the Wasp, which crawls into theaters on July 6th.
