Now that we know Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas are playing Scott Lang and Hank Pym in Ant-Man, Marvel and Edgar Wright need to line up the rest of the cast. The Wrap broke the news that Michael Pena (American Hustle, End of Watch, Eastbound & Down) has been offered a role, and THR describes the unnamed character:
Marvel had been on the lookout for what insiders describe as a “tough Latino” who has to be ready for a lot of physical play. The studio looked at actors ranging from Javier Bardem to Clifton Collins Jr.
What a missed opportunity to cast Michelle Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, Variety says both Rashida Jones and Bryce Dallas Howard are being considered for the female lead but haven’t yet been offered the role, while Jessica Chastain has already turned it down. Ant-Man is set to start shooting in April, so Howard is probably out of the running due to her recent casting in Jurassic World.
Rashida Jones was already rumored to be in the running to play Janet Van Dyne (The Wasp), but Bleeding Cool thinks the female lead may instead be playing Hank Pym’s daughter, a character not in the comics.
I’ve been told that the female lead of this film is the daughter of the second male lead. In light of the last day’s news, that pretty clearly marks her out as the offspring of Hank Pym. If he had a daughter in the comics, I don’t know about her. It bears pointing out that Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish devised their take on Ant-Man a good while ago now and before any kind of briefing from Marvel Studios. They may have (rightly) felt at liberty to play fast and loose with comics continuity. […] So I suspect that Van Dyne senior and Hank Pym may have been conflated. Perhaps. Or maybe Vernon van Dyne is about to be cast and he’ll have a bigger part than Pym.
Whoever she is — Pym or van Dyne or somebody else — we’ll still be happy if it means a Paul Rudd / Rashida Jones reunion.
(Banner images via Helga Esteb, Helga Esteb, and s_bukley / Shutterstock.com.)