Set several years after Ant-Man (but before Avengers: Infinity War), the new Marvel movie reunites audiences with Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), as well as Hope’s father Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). While Scott is trying to stay trouble-free after getting into a heap of it over his participation in the events of Captain America: Civil War, he has to don the Ant-Man suit again as Hope and Hank attempt to locate Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) in the Quantum Realm. But a new villain named Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) may prove a dangerous threat to their mission.
Directed once again by Ant-Man helmer Peyton Reed, Ant-Man and the Wasp brings back almost all the characters from the first film as well as a few new ones. Below is a handy guide to the cast and who they are playing, along with comments from folks like Rudd, Lilly, Douglas, Reed and others that we gleaned while on the Atlanta set of Ant-Man and the Wasp last summer.
Returning Characters:
Ant-Man/Scott Lang (Paul Rudd)
When we last saw Scott Lang, he was being busted out of the Raft supermax prison by Captain America (Chris Evans) after the events of Civil War. But we learned in Avengers: Infinity War that he cut a deal with the government to stay out of jail and remain close to his family. So Lang is back in San Francisco and under house arrest, living with Luis (Michael Pena) and laying low until his sentence is finished.
“(He is) now trying to just be as good of a Dad as (he) can be and (he) hasn’t really talked to Hope,” says Rudd about Scott’s quest to stay out of trouble for his daughter. “But, boy I tell you, just when you think you’re out, they pull you right back in.” And how does Scott feel about being pulled back into duty as a superhero? “I just think there’s a lot at stake in his life and in his personal life,” muses Rudd. “He cares about all the people involved, but it’s trying to figure out what to do and also who (he is) – what kind of person, what kind of parent, and what kind of hero.”
Hope Van Dyne/The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly)
Hope and her father Hank are constantly on the move after having refused to sign the Sokovia Accords and hand over Pym Particles, staying one step ahead of the authorities as they delve further into the Quantum Realm in search of Hank’s missing wife -- and Hope’s mother -- Janet Van Dyne, who vanished years earlier. But Hope also has her own suit now, and is taking on her mother’s mantle as the Wasp.
“What’s exciting about playing the Wasp now is there is this incredible satisfaction in Hope, something she has been waiting for her whole life,” says Evangeline Lilly. “Which is essentially an affirmation from her father (that) has come. And it came in the form of this mantle, of this suit. Now that she’s wearing it and she’s exercising those muscles that she has wanted to exercise all her life, she’s in a really different place emotionally when we start the film. Hopefully you’ll be able to see and feel that instantly.”
Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas)
Not a fan of either Tony Stark or the Sokovia Accords, Dr. Hank Pym refuses to sign the latter, which would mean his technology -- including Pym Particles -- would become government property. So Hank and his daughter Hope go on the run, with his suitcase-sized lab-in-an-office-building in tow. “He’s gotten older,” says Douglas with a laugh when asked how Hank has changed between the two films. “He’s still a little curmudgeon-y. I don’t think he’s changed a whole lot. He still looks at (Scott) as not being the right choice for Hope. He’s a little judgmental. Thinks she can do a little better.”
Douglas adds that Marvel’s ability to bring a story like this to life visually is what he enjoys the most about coming back as Pym. “I love this whole experience,” he says. “I never did green screen in my life. The whole idea of talking to an ant on your shoulder and the characters and the breadth of imagination and what you can do, it’s staggering.”
Luis, Kurt and Dave (Michael Pena/Tip “T.I.” Harris/David Dastmalchian)
Scott’s old crew members -- who turned out to be unlikely heroes in the first Ant-Man -- are trying to stay straight themselves and have launched a new home security business called X-Con, because after all, who better to protect your house than former criminals who have spent time and effort to break into it? “[He’s] excited about that because it’s him making an honest go of it, and it’s hard,” says Rudd about the business, which Scott is involved in as well. “It’s hard out there for a pimp. You got to try and make a living and we’re giving it a shot, and I think we’d be pretty good at that business. So I’m all for it. They have a little office but it’s also weird. I’m under house-arrest, so I haven’t really seen it.”
Cassie, Maggie and Paxton (Abby Ryder Forston/Judy Greer/Bobby Cannavale)
Scott Lang’s daughter, his ex-wife and her fiancé are all still living in San Francisco, although hopefully their house has been repaired since Scott fought Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) there at the end of Ant-Man (we believe that Cassie’s oversized ant pet might still be there too). Scott is trying to wait out his house arrest so he can finally move about freely and be the father he desperately wants to be for Cassie. Whether Cassie, her mom and her future stepdad (who is, if you recall, a San Francisco police officer who doesn’t exactly trust Scott) get caught up in the events of the new movie remain unknown for now.
New Characters:
Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen)
The single most mysterious character in Ant-Man and the Wasp is Ghost, the masked villain who uses stolen Pym technology to phase through solid matter. The character is so enigmatic, in fact, that actress Hannah John-Kamen (Ready Player One) could virtually not tell us a thing about her during our set visit. “It’s one of those things where of course I’d love to give you more of who she is,” said the actress. But she did acknowledge that gender-swapping the character from the male version in the comics has been a treat. “That’s been amazing,” she asserted. “It’s freeing to be able to take that character and go, ‘Yeah, that can be played by a male or female.’ That’s definitely forward thinking.”
“We thought this was a cool opportunity to create a character that was all about mystery,” said executive producer Stephen Broussard. “What the origins, backstory, goals and agendas of this person (are) was a great vehicle for the story we wanted to tell.” He added that Ghost “is on a mission at odds with our heroes…but with a similar goal, at the worst possible time for Scott Lang.”
Dr. Bill Foster (Laurence Fishburne)
Bill Foster’s history in Marvel Comics goes all the way back to September 1966, when he made his debut in the pages of The Avengers #32. A one-time lab assistant to Hank Pym, he assumed the personas of Black Goliath, Giant-Man and Goliath over the course of his published history. In Ant-Man and the Wasp he is portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. “Bill is a former colleague who really was involved early on with Pym in a thing called Project Goliath,” explains Peyton Reed. “They were both involved with SHIELD at some point, but (Foster)’s sort of stepped away and taken a more academic approach.”
Reed suggested that Foster and Pym have a Steve Jobs/Bill Gates kind of relationship now, describing them as “two scientists who are both geniuses in quantum physics and quantum mechanics, but maybe have a Mac/PC rivalry about what the approach to delving into the quantum realm might be.” Is it possible we might see Foster suit up in his Goliath form? “Maybe,” hinted Broussard. “How that plays into this story, I think would rather leave unsaid for the moment.”
Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer)
Hank Pym’s wife and one-time partner in both science and crime-fighting, Janet Van Dyne is the original Wasp. She disappeared 30 years earlier into the Quantum Realm, but a signal from that subatomic dimension leads Hank and Hope to believe she might still be alive. Since Michelle Pfeiffer has been cast in the role -- making her first appearance in a superhero movie since playing Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns -- it seems clear that she will turn up. But what kind of condition will she be in after 30 years in the Quantum Realm?
“Obviously Michelle Pfeiffer is an incredible actress and consummate in all ways,” says Evangeline Lilly about getting the chance to work with one of her acting idols -- and as her daughter, no less. “But this is a superhero movie. So to a certain extent it’s just like living out all of your geek fantasies. And having Michelle Pfeiffer as my mom was kind of one of my geek fantasies.”
Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins)
Described variously as a “low-level criminal” and a “minor villain” in the Marvel Comics universe, Sonny Burch debuted in 2003 as an employee of Cross Technologies -- yes, named after the antagonist of Ant-Man, the now deceased Darren Cross. Burch tried to adapt Tony Stark’s Iron Man tech into his own brand of armor with disastrous results. Whether he’s involved with the Cross company in the new film, or if his name and character are being repurposed, we can’t say: little mention of him was made on our set visit. But he’s played by Walton Goggins, and having the Justified star in anything is always good.
Jimmy Woo (Randall Park)
Randall Park (The Interview) is doing double superhero duty this year: he’ll also play Dr. Stephen Shin in DC’s Aquaman movie. Here he plays Jimmy Woo, whose comic book origins actually stretch all the way back to 1956 and an appearance in Atlas Comics, the predecessor of Marvel. He’s surfaced here and there over the years, joining SHIELD in 1968 and showing up in Marvel publications as late as 2013. He’ll be a SHIELD agent in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but what his role is in the story remains to be seen.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is out in theaters July 6. You can snag your tickets right here on Fandango.
