FAN-CAST: Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man
With the real film soon to be upon us, I thought I would share my thoughts and ideas on how an Ant-Man film should be portrayed and who should be casted for the characters. I’ve tried my utmost to be as original and realistic as possible.
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ANT-MAN
Ant-Man is the name of several fictional characters appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. Ant-Man was originally the superhero persona of Henry Pym, a brilliant scientist who invented a substance that allowed him to change his size. Henry Pym was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Tales to Astonish #27. However, Henry Pym first appeared as the Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish #35. After Pym retired his Ant-Man identity, successors Scott Lang and Eric O'Grady have used Pym's technology to take on the role of Ant-Man.
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Hank Pym
As a bio-chemist with a finger in every scientific pie, Hank Pym is undeniably a genius, but his fragile ego and self-worth seem desperate to convince him otherwise. This has led him to become one of MARVEL’s most complicated characters, and no doubt a fascinating character to put on the big screen.
In this film I have imagined, he is one of the head scientists working at the Strategic Science Reserve in the 1960s. He is eager to be the best, but his competition is fierce and has generated an ego to compensate for him feeling like a failure. He made the breakthrough of Pym Particles when he was younger and so far they have only been used on non-living matter because he is unsure of the effects it may have on living beings.
Ewan McGregor
Likely most recognised from the Star Wars prequels, I believe Ewan McGregor would bring such much needed charm and heart to the character. He’s already known as my favourite to some of you after seeing my fake Hank Pym vs. Ultron still, where I saw tremendous support for McGregor in the role. He’s been in films set in the 60s before and blended into the period perfectly. He’s a little smaller than Pym is in the comics, but I don’t see that being a problem. The majority of my fact is shorter already, and with an inch lifts I think he’d be fine.
Who else I considered: Simon Baker, Aaron Eckhart, Alan Tudyk.
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Janet Van Dyne
As a quirky socialite who’s managed to retain the majority of the brains she gained from her father, Janet Van Dyne would be the love interest in my imagined movie. Unlike a lot of the other femme fatale’s in the MCU I want Janet kicking ass too. She would become Wasp in this somewhat soon, thanks to some genetic meddling from her fiancé Hank. Similar to Betty Ross and General Ross in The Incredible Hulk, I think having some focus on her relationship with her father would be interesting.
Kristina Anapau
Probably most recognised as Maurella on True Blood, Kristina popped onto my radar after her appearance in Black Swan where she played a wonderfully bitchy character. It was also during Black Swan where I noticed that she is the splitting image of the character, being the exact same height and having the same gorgeous pixie features. She’s easily talented enough for the role and I think would bring some honest wit as well.
Who else I considered: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jennifer Morrison, Ashley Greene.
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Howard Stark
This is simply my idea on how to tie this film in with the rest of the MCU. We already know that Howard was a prominent figure in the Strategic Scientific Reserve so to me it makes sense to see him return in this. He’s a cocky, good looking, unparalleled genius so I think it would be nigh impossible for Hank to not feel jealousy towards him and hostility towards his effect on women, given how paranoid about losing Janet he is already. In the end though, I think Howard would prove himself to be good man and Hank’s friend.
John Slattery
Having already portrayed Stark in Iron Man 2, fans should be familiar with him as the character. That being said, I believe that Slattery is a phenomenal actor who is especially suited to period settings, like in Mad Men where he plays Roger Sterling. In this film he would be playing a Howard slightly younger than the one we see in Iron Man 2, but if you just dye his hair again and just make him look a little more youthful using makeup than I think he would be fine, since the role would be unlikely to be very physical anyway.
OR
Dominic Cooper
Also having portrayed Stark already, I’m terribly undecided on who should reprise the role. For both of them it requires about the same amount of aging and de-aging. So for this casting choice, I just can’t make the decision between the two. That being said, I do believe that Dominic Cooper would bring a very different performance than Slattery. Cooper, I believe, would bring a lot more fun to the role and while that may be good to keep the film from being bogged down with seriousness, I don’t want a repeat of Iron Man 2 wherein fun becomes the primary direction. Cooper can do serious well though, and I think he was unfortunately underused in Captain America so this may be a good time for him to reprise the role and really shine.
Who else I considered: None.
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Anton Venko
This is another idea that I’m unsure whether people would like. I figured that, since Howard is going to be in this, why not include the guy he was working with during the sixties. In this, Vanko would play a similar role to Justin Hammer in IM2 in that while he isn’t too villainous, he’s undeniably the douche in the film. Vanko would play as the conflict within the SSR.
Michael Pitt
Pitt is another actor well versed in period pieces, having performed exceptionally on Boardwalk Empire as Jimmy, and in The Dreamers. There are a few reasons as to why I wanted Pitt for this role, most notably the fact that I just think he is an incredibly talented actor and needs to be given a role to shine in front of a major audience. Another reason is that I think, in some weird way, Mickey Rourke and Pitt look alike. I think it’s the lips. And the nose. Anyway, Pitt is wonderful at playing a smarmy knob, and I believe the Russian accent would be easy for him to adopt.
Who else I considered: Joe Anderson, Joel Kinnaman, Charlie Bewley.
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Vernon Van Dyne
This character, I thought, was needed to expand the supporting cast to that of a regular Marvel Studios film. I imagine him as a more senior scientist and researcher at the SSR, of whom Pym works under, and who isn’t entirely keen on the idea of how close Pym is to his daughter. This disapproval of Hank would largely stem from a conflict of what they perceive to be scientifically important. Within the comics, Vernon developed a gamma-ray beam that could contact other planets, which I think is a fun idea to play with. While I don’t think him actually contacting another world should happen, if you make him very keen on exploring and understanding the vast universe, I think that would contrast nicely with Pym’s fascination with the minute and miniscule. For the sake of drama, I think he would be the most likely person to be gravely injured or killed.
Stephen McHattie
As a comic book movie veteran, it’s tricky to say what you won’t recognise Stephen McHattie from. He played Loyalist in 300, Hollis Mason in Watchmen, Leland in A History of Violence, as well as countless TV shows such as Fringe, Reaper and as The Shade in the Justice League cartoon. It’s safe to say then that the man has experience with the genre. Aside from that, McHattie is a genuinely incredible actor, who goes leaps and bounds to maximise his performance in roles, even when they are small supporting acts. His role in Watchmen particularly caught my eye, because of how well he portrayed a fatherly figure and how subtly he mixed in a twinge of sternness. He definitely deserves a role that would get him more within the public’s eye.
Who else I considered: Lance Henriksen, Charles Dance.
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Villains:
Elihas Starr
And now we reach the villains of the film. As many would agree, the strength of a comic book movie comes in no small part from its antagonist. The Joker in The Dark Knight, Loki in The Avengers, Ozymandias in Watchmen. A good villain elevates the film above and beyond being only average, so I’ve tried to keep that in mind. Elihas Starr, otherwise known as Egghead, is a scientist working for A.I.M. in this film, as both chief scientist and somewhat of a commander for them. Starr would have an academic history with Hank and blame him for his shortcomings. He is very much the same man as Hank; insecure, jealous of his intellectual peers, and desperate to go down in history as an important figure. I think this would make for great characterisation as it not only lets us sympathise with the villain, but could also be used to show how easily Hank could let the anger and hatred inside of him rise to the surface (which would then be shown when his brain waves are replicated in Ultron, in perhaps a later film).
John Simm
John Simm is easily one of the actors I hold highest for quite simply making me adore him as both a protagonist and as an antagonist. Famed for his role as The Master in Doctor Who and as Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, has an utterly wonderful acting range and definitely needs to be in more films. Surprisingly, it was more of his role as Sam Tyler that convinced me he would work here. He portrays the character’s frustration so well, that I can’t help but think he’d do equally well as the neurotic and disgruntled Elihas Starr. I also wanted an actor who looked subtly unique without going to the obvious extreme, and who has a great sense of comic timing. It’s highly unlikely that Ant-Man wouldn’t have strong comedic elements, but I really wanted to stay away from casting straight up comedians, and instead go with quite serious actors who I know have great sense of humour that would play off of each other. Simm has proven before in Life on Mars that he can deliver comedy extremely straight and dryly which I think is exactly what this role needs.
Who else I considered: Rainn Wilson, Michael Sheen, Eddie Izzard.
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A.I.M.
As I mentioned before, A.I.M. would be my imagined bad guys in this film, just because I think they’d be the only evil organisation from the comic books that would work here. If I remember correctly, A.I.M. will be playing a part within Iron Man 3 and I don’t think that hinders their appearance here at all. The Iron Man films have always stressed the technological side of things, so we’re guaranteed to see some incredibly advanced stuff in that film, so I don’t think we’d need to worry about the organisation being too advanced here given when this takes place. The technology can still be advanced here, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that what we see in IM3 will be so above and beyond in terms of weaponry, that Marvel would easily be able to depict them as being suitably less developed. I was tempted to make Hydra the villainous group near the beginning of writing this, but upon reflection, I didn’t want to re-use too many things from Captain America. We’d already have Howard Stark and the SSR, anymore and it would indefinitely be overcrowded.
BONUS
As either easter eggs or after credits scenes, I’d like some mention of A.I.M. or Starr beginning to create MODOK, just to establish a villain that could crop up somewhere as well as generate some continuity. I don’t want to leave the film wondering why A.I.M. never did anything else for 50 years without even a remark about them going into hiding.
As well, (and some of you would probably dislike this), I’d like an appearance from a younger Nick Fury, just to tie in with how Nick tells Tony in Iron Man 2 that he and his dad created SHIELD together. I think just a very short scene at the end, which could maybe reflect the after credit sequence of Iron Man, wherein Howard tells a very young but capable Nick Fury that he wants his assistance in creating a new type of homeland security. I think having the roles reversed like that would be great to see.
My only gripe with this idea is that the ages might not match up. If Fury is the same age as Samuel L. Jackson within the films, then at best he would be twenty during the events of this film which is maybe a bit too young. Still, if they just claimed that Fury has had something done to him to slow his age process down, then that’d sort everything out.
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This took quite a long time so I really hope you like it! Comment your thoughts and feelings down below and I’ll try my best to respond to as many people as possible.
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