It’s fair to say Marvel Studios’ Multiverse Saga has not hit the creative highs of its previous Infinity Saga. Although we think the hate for the post-Endgame MCU is a bit extreme, some of the projects have, indeed, been very lackluster. We count Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania as perhaps the most disappointing, right up there with Secret Invasion. (2023? Not a great year for Marvel). And legendary actor Michael Douglas, who played the MCU’s original Ant-Man, Dr. Hank Pym, has now admitted that he tried to persuade Marvel Studios to kill off his character. But they simply wouldn’t allow it.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Variety), Douglas said, “I would have been killed off after the second one, but they wouldn’t let me.” This echoes what he told The View in 2024, when he said, “Getting [killed off] actually was my request for the third one. I said I’d like to have a serious [death], with all these great special effects. There’s got to be some fantastic way where I can shrink to an ant size and explode, whatever it is. I want to use all those effects. But that was on the last one. Now, I don’t think I’m going to show up [for a fourth].” Given the reaction to Quantumania, it’s safe to say there probably won’t be a fourth Ant-Man anyway.
Nerdist’s Take: Hank Pym Deserved a Hero’s Death, Not Fading Into the Background
Much like Anthony Hopkins’ Odin died in Thor: Ragnarok, leaving Thor and Loki without a father figure to guide them, both Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne should have lost their mentor, Hank Pym, in that franchise’s trilogy capper. Now, he’ll probably die offscreen. Which is a shame, because Dr. Pym was a great character who deserved to go out memorably. At this point, the only way we’d really like to see Hank return is maybe in an animated series. Maybe a show depicting his lost adventures from the ’70s and ’80s. But we can’t help but agree with Michael Douglas about what Hank’s fate should have been.
