The Marvel Cinematic Universe Officially Has An ‘Ant-Man’

Marvel has made a big casting announcement for one of its smallest characters: Paul Rudd will be playing the titular hero for the 2015 Marvel film Ant-Man.

Ant-Man has been long in development, and test footage of the film was screened at San Diego Comic Con back in 2010 – when Edgar Wright was first announced as the director for the film. Since then Wright has released two films: the extremely faithful comic adaptation Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and the end to his Cornetto Trilogy that began with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz – The World’s End. Based on those four films, Wright seems like the perfect choice to helm an unconventional, pulp-y action movie.

The original Ant-Man footage still exists on YouTube, although it’s merely taken from cell phone footage taken from Comic-Con. The official trailer can be seen below.

The Ant-Man delays have been a little inconvenient for fans of the tiny superhero. The inclusion of the character Ultron as the main villain for the next Avengers film has confused many Ant-Man fans as Ultron is originally an A.I. created by Ant-Man’s alter-ego: Hank Pym. Marvel Film mastermind, Kevin Feige has hinted at the fact that there are other characters that exist in the current Cinematic Universe (namely Tony Stark) who have experience developing artificial intelligence entities, most notably Stark’s computerized butler Jarvis. This, many fans say, has taken away Ant-Man’s biggest contribution to Marvel as the creation of Ultron (and subsequent tragedy Ultron caused) weighs heavily on Hank Pym and becomes a big factor in what drives Hank Pym as a character.

Edgar Wright attempted to address the speculation on SuperHeroHype years ago:

The idea that we have for the adaptation is to actually involve both… Henry [Hank] Pym and Scott Lang. So you actually do a prologue where you see Pym as Ant-Man in action in the 60’s, in sort of ‘Tales to Astonish’ mode basically, and then the contemporary, sort of flash-forward, is Scott Lang’s story, and how he comes to acquire the suit, how he crosses paths with Henry Pym, and then, in an interesting sort of Machiavellian way, teams up with him.

Wright is developing the screenplay with friend and long-time collaborator Joe Cornish (Attack the Block, The Adventures of Tintin). Fans will have to wait until July 31st, 2015 to see how Ant-Man will fit into the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. Until then Paul Rudd can be seen in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues – now out in theaters.