After years of development, a sneak peek of test footage during last July’s Comic-Con and general angst among comic fans as to whether Marvel Studios should bring the miniscule hero Ant Man to the big screen, Walt Disney Studios announced this morning that Edgar Wright’s “Ant Man” is now officially dated for November 6, 2015.
Baring any unforeseen changes to Marvel’s release schedule, “Ant Man” will become the 11th film the Disney division has produced. It will also become the studios second November release after “Thor: The Darkest Journey” takes the plunge on Nov. 8, 2013. Up until now, Marvel has only opened their films in the lucrative summer months. Pitching an established character such as the God of Thunder – an Avenger to boot – in November is one thing. Trying to launch a relatively unknown Marvel character during that time of year will be a unique challenge for the Marvel/Disney marketing team. The studio will no doubt try to lower expectations on this picture’s box office potential, but they have two years to hope they can convince Channing Tatum or Brad PItt to play Dr. Hank Pym.
A number of different characters have taken the Ant Man name throughout Marvel’s comic book history, but the most famous is Pym. One of the smartest men in the world next to Reed Richards and Tony Stark, Pym develops an application called “Pym particles” which allows for any object or being to be shrunk in size, but still carry the strength of their “original” size. Pym was a founding member of The Avengers that debuted in the Marvel comic book of the same name in September, 1963. Eventually, Pym used his particles to grow to giant size and went by the monikers Giant Man and Goliath. In recent years, he’s stuck to his last costumed identity, Yellowjacket, a character which both grows to giant size and shrinks to the size of a, um, wasp or yellowjacket. When Pym took on new costumed identities, he ended up allowing fan favorite Scott Lang to wear the Ant Man costume. A third individual, morally ambiguous Eric O’Grady, used his access as a low level S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to steal an Ant-Man costume (with Pym particles) and use it for his own selfish reasons. It’s still unclear which Ant Man Wright plans on using in his new movie.
Wright is currently in production on “The World’s End” with longtime collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He previously helmed the critically acclaimed “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hott Fuzz” and “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”
Additionally, Disney and Marvel announced what many had already assumed; “Iron Man 3” (May 5, 2013) and the previously mentioned “Thor: The Darkest World” (Nov. 8, 2013) will be in 3D. The studio decidedly did not include the upcoming “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Guardians” in that category although you’d also have to assume they will be available in 3D.
No word yet on who will shrink to ant-size proportions for moviefans over the globe. Do you have any suggestions on who should play Ant-Man? Share your thoughts below.