Thomas Roach on whether Hank Pym could turn out to be a villain in Ant-Man…
Over the last week we have got our first look at Marvel Studios’ ambitious project Ant-Man with the release of the first trailer and official images, as well as hearing from Marvel’s president Kevin Feige about the project. Not much is known about the project other than the synopsis, but having watched the trailer many times and knowing a few things about Marvel I am making a prediction. Hank Pym ,who is played by Michael Douglas, will be the movie’s main villain.
Whilst this argument will probably be seen as looking at coincidences and jumping to conclusions I still think this is worth talking about. This is not a rumour – this is simply my own speculation. If this does turn out to be true, I apologise for the spoiler.
First off I will like to point out in the trailer that we hear Douglas’ Hank Pym doing the voiceover. Why would this make him the villain you ask? Well in The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier the voiceover was done by the villains in Loki, Ultron and Alexander Pierce. This may be a coincidence but I think there is some weight behind it. We know Pym will be Lang’s mentor in Ant-Man, and that Paul Rudd’s Lang will be the main character and presumably the face of the character for years to come. Why not give Rudd more lines? Marvel has followed a generic formula before and they could be doing it again.
Something else I wondered from the trailer was why is Pym hiring Lang? We were told he was Lang’s mentor but from the trailer he never knew Lang beforehand. Pym is hiring a master thief at random to take on the role of Ant-Man. This makes me believe that he may have other motives. I assumed that Pym and Lang were already going to be friends during the events of this film but as they are not I think Pym is up to something. Hiring a master thief is not exactly the noblest thing for a ‘hero’ to do.
Even if Hank Pym is not the main villain, or a villain at all, I think his character will be questionable at times. In the comics Hank Pym has been shown as a less-than-great guy – he has split personality disorder, is mentally unstable and has even hit his wife Janet Van Dyne a.k.a The Wasp. Whilst this may be ignored completely if Lang is getting the focus it would be frustrating to fans if they do not go into some detail about Hank Pym. Either he will be a villain or his actions will be questionable.
It was also reported back by Variety when Michael Douglas was first cast in Ant-Man that he would be playing the film’s villain. This was then changed on their report. They could have easily have made a mistake and changed it, or they had information they were not supposed to reveal. Douglas has played his share of bad guys and his role of Gordon Gekko from Wall Street is considered one of the best villains of all time.
Right now this is purely speculation about whether or not Hank Pym is a villain. The obvious answer is that he won’t, and will act as the mentor to Scott Lang in the upcoming film and nothing more, but it would not surprise me if there’s a plot twist and Pym is actually a bad guy. I would be happy either way and I am sure the film will be a lot of fun however it turns out.
Do you think Hank Pym is the movie’s villain? Let us know…
Thomas Roach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2vq4CudKRk&list=PL18yMRIfoszFJHnpNzqHh6gswQ0Srpi5E&feature=player_embedded
Originally published January 14, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
