Bleeding Cool has kindly boiled last night’s Marvel special down to just the 45 seconds you care about, and fifteen of those are Paul Rudd and one dapper Michael Douglas. And in addition, we’ve got what may be a few hints about Ant-Man‘s direction.
Ant-Man had a tumultuous production history before the cameras rolled, and it’s an open question how much of Edgar Wright’s script remains behind. And a few changes to the movie’s official synopsis hints at what might have been altered behind the scenes.
Here’s the new synopsis, courtesy of Screen Rant, with the two key changes highlighted:
The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man. Armed with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner-hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats. Against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, Pym and Lang must plan and pull off a heist that will save the world.
This is interesting for a few reasons. The first is that this is more or less the first time any materials around this movie have acknowledged Ant-Man’s past as an Avenger. Considering the upcoming cameo from a certain secret agent, that may be a hint that the Avengers Initiative dates back much further than we thought.
The second is that now Scott Lang is a “master thief” instead of a “con-man.” Neither title really fits the character in the comics well, actually. He only becomes Ant-Man out of desperation to save his daughter, and his day job is as an electronics expert. He gets to keep being Ant-Man mostly because Hank Pym respects the fact that he was going to turn himself in for his crimes after he was done using the suit.
These could just be marketing tweaks, of course. Marketing departments often alter copy if they think it’ll appeal to .3% more of the population. But they align well with rumors, and may hint as to what we’ll see this July.