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When it comes to SDCC, Marvel Studios is king of Hall H, and its 2017 presentation wasn’t short on surprises. While everyone expectantly waits for a fresh glimpse of Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther, the panel opens with something a little more forward-looking: an early glimpse of June 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp.
In footage shot specifically for Comic Con, Paul Rudd and Michael Peña team up for an outrageously funny five minute recap of every MCU movie to date. “He’s got a beautiful beard, a really cool beard, a very unique beard,” Rudd says of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark. Peña meanwhile compares Thor to Fabio, before the pair pull off a spot on imitation of Tom Hiddleston’s notorious South Korean shuffle. It’s hilarious, but it also has a point. “And that’s all you need to know to play Janet van Dyne,” Rudd says to… Michelle Pfeiffer! The former Catwoman will star as the original size-shifting superhero (you may remember she was lost to the Quantum Realm during a flashback mission gone wrong in Ant-Man). “Sounds like a total sausage party,” Pfeiffer quips, before exiting with Evangeline Lilly’s Hope van Dyne.
Immediately after, a succession of concept art whizzes by on screen. There’s old Hank Pym in an Ant-Man costume, a shot of a cat-sized Ant-Man getting a piggy back from his daughter, some art of Pym working on Giant-Man’s costume like something from Pacific Rim, a far out illustration of the Quantum Realm, and a work-in-progress animatic of The Wasp scaling the side of a plane. This brief sizzle reel ends with a fun finishing shot of a seemingly ordinary city street… until a giant-sized Ant-Man sheepishly pops his head round the corner. Could he be stuck in this form?
Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige is then brought on stage to make a series of rapid fire casting announcements: Black Mirror’s Hannah John-Kamen is playing The Ghost, whose invisible, intangible suit could give Ant-Man the runaround. Walton Goggins has signed up as corporate villain called Sonny Birch, the sometimes chairman of Cross Technologies. Randall Park will play Agent Jimmy Woo, and Laurence Fishburne (aka the DCEU’s Perry White) has crossed enemy lines to play Hank Pym’s contemporary Bill Foster – otherwise known as size-changing hero Goliath. Filming is now underway, and if the surprisingly great first film is anything to go by this could be another under-the-radar treat.
