Ant-Man Movie Rumors: Will Scott Lang Be Ant-Man?
A casting call sheet just surfaced for the upcoming Marvel Phase-3 Ant-Man movie. On that call sheet, there was a number of interesting character types that Marvel and Edgar Wright were looking for. One was a Caucasian in his 30s that was tough an intimidating, yet with comedic abilities. Another was a Caucasian in his 20s, shorter, but edgy and funny. Another was a young girl, between the age of six to nine – intelligent and appealing.
What does this say about the Ant-Man movie?
Well, most people assumed that Edgar Wright’s movie was going to be about Hank Pym as Ant-Man, but I have believed from the start that it was not going to be about Pym as the hero, but about the man who replaced him as Ant-Man, Scott Lang.
I have two reasons to think like this.
First, Marvel is trying to set up their comic book world to look like their movie world, even changing character’s appearances in the comics to match them on screen. The fact is that Ant-Man – in the comics – is Scott Lang. Hank Pym has not been a superhero for a long time outside of random emergencies.
Second, the Scott Lang story is much more interesting for a stand-alone movie than Hank’s story. I know people don’t agree with that because of message board posters who are crying that not using Pym will make the movie worthless. Those people obviously love Pym from either the comics or animated cartoons.
The thing is, so do I. I love the character of Hank Pym from the comics. I love how his intelligence caused him to become paranoid and schizophrenic and eventually lead to a nervous breakdown, which caused him to retire from being a superhero and become a scientist and ally to The Avengers – as a scientist.
That story would fail horribly as a solo movie.
However, here is the story of Scott Lang and why the story is perfect for both a standalone movie and fits the cast call for the Ant-Man movie. Scott Lang was a thief who ended up in prison. He gets out and is trying to go on the straight and narrow but his young daughter Cassie gets very sick and will die without help. Lang breaks into Hank Pym’s lab and steals his Ant-Man suit and the Pym Particles so he can rescue a doctor to save his daughter’s life. After it is all said and done, Pym refuses to report him to the police and allows him to keep the suit and become Ant-Man.
That six to nine year old girl in the Ant-Man movie casting call could be Cassie. The male in his 20s could be Scott Lang, the man who would become a hero. Hank could be the character in his 30s and would be there to help Lang along the way. It would be the perfect set up for a movie.
Fans online seem to hate this idea – and honestly, that is why people like Shane Black (“Iron Man 3”) and Edgar Wright shouldn’t make Marvel movies. Fans will crap all over the people that we should want to make these movies because they don’t make generic cookie cutter adaptations. I, for one, am glad to see guys like Black and Wright take on these projects because they have a chance to make them better than they ever had the right to be.
Source: CBBS
