Michael Douglas will play Hank Pym in the new "Ant-Man" film.
Kevin Feige, President of Marvel, confirmed the news in a press release and stated, "With Hank Pym's rich history in the Marvel Universe, we knew we needed an actor capable of bringing the weight and stature to the role that the character deserves. We felt incredibly relieved when Michael Douglas agreed to step into the part with the charm and fortitude he brings to every character he inhabits, and couldn't be more excited to see what he will do to bring Hank Pym to life."
The news comes as a surprise as Paul Rudd was already cast for the role. Now pundits have begun to speculate whether the new film will have two plots. Back in 2006, when director Edgar Wright was first approached to direct the film, Wright stated that he wanted to show two versions of the superhero.
At the time Wright told Superhype, "The idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both [men in the suit], is to have a film that basically is about Henry Pym and Scott Lang, so you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60's, in sort of 'Tales to Astonish' mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang's story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him. So it's like an interesting thing, like the 'Marvel Premiere' one that I read which is Scott Lang's origin, it's very brief like a lot of those origin comics are, and in a way, the details that are skipped through in the panels and the kind of thing we'd spend half an hour on."
Douglas recently won the Golden Globe and Emmy award for his role in "Behind the Candelabra." He was also seen in "Haywire," "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" and "Solitary Man."
"Ant-Man" is slated to be released on July 31, 2015.