MICHAEL DOUGLAS SAYS MARVEL REFUSED REQUEST TO KILL HANK PYM

Michael Douglas says Marvel refused his request to kill off Hank Pym after his second Ant-Man film. “I would have been killed off after the second one, but they wouldn’t let me,” he told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Douglas first played Pym in Ant-Man in 2015 and returned for Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018. He later appeared in Avengers: Endgame in 2019 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in 2023.

Douglas said he sought the first role because he had never worked on a green-screen film and wanted to see how one was made. He described acting against a green screen as difficult because the finished images were absent during filming. He praised Paul Rudd and the other cast members, but said he had looked at the “fine print” of his contract when he wanted to leave. Douglas also voiced Pym in the animated series What If...?, starting in 2021. The year of his final appearances in that series is given as either 2022 or 2023.

In a 2024 appearance on The View, Douglas said he had requested a death scene for Pym in the third Ant-Man film. He suggested that special effects could show the character shrinking to ant size and exploding. Douglas has also said Marvel sent him comics before his first film because he was unfamiliar with its characters. He said he still asked questions about the Marvel Cinematic Universe as its story became more complicated. More recently, Douglas said he was unlikely to return to the series as he planned to accept fewer acting roles.