Paul Rudd Recalls His Unexpected Casting As Ant-Man In The MCU

Actor Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang/Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in a new interview, he recalled how superhero films were never on his radar before the offer came around. Rudd told Men’s Health that Marvel was still “pretty new” in those days, and the idea of being in a superhero movie was akin, for Rudd, to being offered a role on Dancing with the Stars.

“My agent set up a meeting with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Marvel was pretty new. They weren’t even part of Disney. It would’ve been like somebody saying, ‘How would you feel about doing Dancing with the Stars?’ A superhero franchise was never on my radar. I never really thought I was the type of actor that they would offer any of those parts to.”

Backing up a bit here, Disney acquired Marvel in 2009, so it appears Rudd is talking about a meeting that took place a long time ago. Ant-Man’s original director Edgar Wright teased his involvement with Ant-Man years prior, at San Diego Comic-Con in 2006. Wright would leave the project in 2014 due to creative differences. Both Rudd and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were said to be in the mix to play Ant-Man before Rudd closed the deal.

Rudd said he became excited about the opportunity to play Ant-Man because the idea was “so out of left field” for him. “I knew that if it was announced that I was going to be joining a superhero franchise, most people would say, What the f**k? And I got to wear a superhero suit.”

Rudd will play Ant-Man once again in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which releases on February 17. The movie is directed by Peyton Reed, who directed the first two, and also stars Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan Majors, Kathryn Newton, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer.