The ever-reliable Michael Peña has made a habit of stealing scenes right under the noses of many of his more famous co-stars for years in movies like the Oscar-winning Crash (2005), End of Watch (2012) and The Martian (2015). Peña was certainly the comedic highlight of Marvel’s Ant-Man, so it comes with a tinge of delight the Marvel appears to set the character to reprise his role of Luis in the forthcoming standalone sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp.
The Hollywood Reporter seemingly revealed the story, burying the lead perhaps as Peña also appears to be slated to lead Sony’s upcoming horror entry The Bringing, an upcoming thriller centering around a man who’s investigating the death of a woman in the storied Cecil Hotel. That film – to be directed by Sherlock veteran Jeremy Lovering – will mark a rare leading role for the prolific character actor. It’s unclear as to when The Bringing might be headed to screens but Ant-Man and the Wasp, at the very least, looks to be going before cameras sometime next year with a July 6, 2018 release date already logged.
Peyton Reed will return to direct Ant-Man and the Wasp, which finds shared billing between Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang and Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne; Michael Douglas is also looking likely to return to the mix. Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, who were on-set writers on the original Ant-Man, are charged with penning the screenplay with Rudd and Adam McKay (The Big Short) credited with story-by citations.
Peña was last seen on screen in the Oscar-nominated blockbuster The Martian. Coming up, he will star opposite Alexander Skarsgård in War on Everyone, co-star in the recently wrapped Collateral Beauty starring Will Smith, appear in the screen reboot of CHiPS and lend his voice to The LEGO Ninjago Movie.