Paul Rudd says his latest Marvel film ‘may be the end of Ant-Man’ | Ents & Arts News

In the third solo outing for the beloved Marvel character – Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania – there’s a new villain in town, Kang the Conqueror, as well as old friends Hank Pym and Janet and Hope Van Dyne. Just make sure you read Quantum Theory For Dummies before you watch it.

Paul Rudd says he has no idea if this Marvel movie will be his last.

The third installment in the Ant-Man franchise, following 2015’s ‘Ant-Man’ and 2018’s ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp’, is the first of the films he did not co-write.

“Maybe it’s the end of Ant-Man,” Rudd told Sky News.

“I do not really know. As for what’s next, the only thing I can say for sure is that the Conqueror’s Kang will play a very big part in whatever it is.”

The film’s director, Payton Reed, has previously called the film the end of the Ant-Man trilogy.

But with 31 films in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and counting, that’s not necessarily a reason to think Scott Lang’s time is up.

Rudd didn’t take being a part of the Marvel movies lightly: “They feel great working on it because they are, you know. And I think so [Marvel] have a different way of making movies than other studios… Everyone who works at Marvel has a little faith in the machine. They’re good at doing the things they do.”

A big part of that, he says, is thanks to the people who work on the business side of the company, including the president of Marvel Studios.

Rudd’s unlikely comic book past

“Kevin Feige and some of the producers know what they want to see because they’re comic fans, they’re Marvel fans. You grew up reading the comics. They are fanboys and fangirls. I think they really care about the product.”

But despite Rudd’s loyalty to the franchise, he wasn’t always so observant.

Brought up by an English uncle (Rudd’s parents were both Londoners), the actor admits, “I read Beano and Dandy more than any other Marvel comic, that’s for sure.”

Old stars return

Michael Douglas, the Dr. Playing Hank Pym – the character who invented Pym Particles and allowed Ant-Man to shrink and grow – is also a longtime member of the cast.

He says being back in the Marvel Family is “like wearing an old coat.”

“It’s like the old film days when actors were making films together all the time. It’s just comfortable.”

He spends much of his screen time with his film legend Michelle Pfeiffer, 64, who is paid by his wife Janet.

And far from being put off by all the technology in modern superhero films, the 78-year-old star says it was technology that first lured him into the franchise.

“I had never done a green screen, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to do it, to see how it all works.”

But he admits that with Marvel’s highlights come responsibilities: “Once you’re on board, there’s such secrecy about the whole process … You don’t see a script until maybe a few weeks before the movie starts, and then you don’t have much input.”

He also says it differs from other films thanks to its source material – the “very strict bible” of Marvel Comics.

“You are actually in the quantum realm”

Filmed at Pinewood Studios in the UK, the production had a whopping eight stages and 48 sets. And thanks to an excess of action and VFX, it’s a job that demands technical rather than emotional acting from its stars.

Kathryn Newton, who plays Ant-Man’s daughter Cassie Lang, told Sky News: “It’s very like you’re on your mark. OK, now you have to cry. And this is. That is hard.”

Evangelina Lilly, the Canadian actress behind Hope Van Dyne, describes one of the more technical phases – dubbed “The Volume” – as “overwhelming”.

She explained: “Instead of a green screen stage, The Volume is a stage with thousands of small LED screens covering and projecting onto the walls and ceiling. Everything you actually see in the quantum realm.

“So the quantum landscape is all around you. And when they change the angle of the camera, the landscape changes so you see something different. It’s immersive. You are actually in it. You are in the quantum realm.”

Unlike the first two Ant-Man films, which were set in San Francisco, this film is based almost entirely on the Quantum Realm – an alternate universe hidden in the multiverse where time follows its own rules.

Director Payton Reed says it’s a place unique to the Ant-Man films and one that he was dying to explore: “It’s not the space of Guardians of the Galaxy or Asgard of the Thor movies. It’s a subatomic world.”

Partly inspired by electron microscope photography, he admits that he came up with Quantum Theory For Dummies before his first Ant-Man film, exploring things like quantum entanglement in the last film and Schrodinger’s cat in this one.

He also describes the “balancing act” of being at the forefront of one of the franchise’s many productions: “It kind of has to fit into this larger architecture of this great MCU story that’s being told but not smothered by it.

“The way it works is that we make decisions and we come up with ideas for our film and all the films and things that come after us have to deal with the fallout. And of course we also inherit things.”

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In fact, this film kicks off the fifth phase of the MCU, with two more films planned this year alone – the third installment of Guardians Of The Galaxy in May and The Marvels in July.

And as Rudd confirms, there’s one character guaranteed to come back – time-traveling terrorist Kang. The villain who has killed the Avengers so many times in different timelines that he literally can’t keep track is played by Lovecraft country star Jonathan Majors.

In a universe of endless possibilities, alternate realities, and supercharged powers, Kang’s oppressive presence is a surefire presence in Marvel movies for years to come.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is in theaters now.