'Ant-Man and the Wasp' Movie news: Michael Douglas Announces His Return; Production to Commence in July
"Ant-Man and the Wasp," the upcoming sequel to the 2015 film "Ant-Man," is set for a July 2018 release. Paul Rudd is set to reprise his role as the titular superhero, aka Scott Lang, and he will have Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne by his side to play the Wasp. Now, Michael Douglas has confirmed his return as well.
In a Facebook post on Douglas' page, the 72-year-old actor revealed the news and accompanied it with a photo of himself posing next to a framed poster of "Ant-Man." Douglas played Hank Pym, Hope's father, in the first movie. He is a physicist who invented the Ant-Man suit and was actually the first one to put it on.
It can be recalled that Hank's wife, Janet, was originally the person behind the Wasp suit. However, while on a mission with her husband, she performed the ultimate sacrifice in order to disable a nuclear missile. And although he considered her dead, new hope of her survival dawned on Hank when he discovered that Scott was able to escape the same subatomic quantum realm his wife had disappeared in. Now, it is Hope's turn to put on the Wasp suit.
Douglas told Collider in November 2015 that he was asked to reprise his role for the sequel. He was more than ecstatic about the offer and expressed his excitement to participate. "I just got a call recently – they want to negotiate for a sequel and I thought 'That's great!' Hopefully, I won't have to carry quite as much expositional dialogue as the first one but I had a wonderful time doing it," he said.
There were previous reports saying that "Ant-Man and the Wasp" would commence production in June of this year, but Douglas' post states that filming will not begin until July. The movie is expected to shoot in Atlanta, Georgia where "Avengers: Infinity War" is currently filming.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp" is set to bow in U.S. theaters on July 6, 2018.
