Pixar Wants Marvel’s Ant-Man? And so it begins…

The last time we touched on the Ant-Man project by Marvel Studios here at Screen Rant was back in July when we reported that Edgar Wright, the man behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, would be prioritizing Baby Driver as his next film.

For Marvelites, that news meant that his Ant-Man live-action adaptation would be delayed for a while, likely to 2012 (where it tentatively sits now) or later.

Well, if Disney wants that movie out sooner… there’s always Pixar, right? I'm just kidding of course. Or am i? As it turns out, they’re interested in actually doing that movie...

With Disney moving on in and pocketing the 'House of Ideas,' things could be different for the future of Marvel films. There will no doubt be a desire to increase the production from Marvel Studios, to push out more superhero blockbusters from the plethora of unused characters ripe for feature film debuts.

According to reports, it seems that Pixar may want to help make that happen for one character in particular: Ant-Man. They seem to think he’d be perfect for their animated style of movie-making and while that may be true, I don’t want that to happen.

With The Avengers opening at the top of summer 2012, the roster will likely (read: hopefully) include the key roster members from the early days of the Avengers comics – Ant-Man being one of them - A live-action Ant-Man just to be clear.

What many fans have suspected is that Ant-Man could debut as a comedic support character in that team-up film and have his own solo origins movie that year or shortly after since the studio has allocated their resources to pushing out the key character films first: Thor, Iron Man 2, The First Avenger: Captain America.

If Pixar were given the go-ahead for an animated stylistic Ant-Man, it wouldn’t fit with the current universe they have now and it would ruin the continuity and the long-term plan set in motion by Marvel Studios. Even worse is that it would represent and embody the exact fears of those who've been worried about the Disney-Marvel deal since it was announced last week.

In my mind, let Pixar do their thing, let Marvel Studios do theirs. Disney should focus on helping them expand to make more instead of transferring them to other subsidiaries.

Click to continue reading 'Pixar to Produce Marvel's Ant-Man?'

Disney Pixar's Logo

Here are some basics about what we know of the Ant-Man film so far:

  • Ant-Man will have his solo appearance after The Avengers.
  • Ant-Man is one of the main five characters who has a film in development.
  • It will be strictly a solo film of the character and will not include any other Avenger.
  • It will be a comedy, but not in the same style as Edgar Wright’s previous comedies (i.e. It will not be a spoof).

Note the part where Ant-Man’s film will not include any other Avenger. The can be read as not featuring any of the actors from the other films, meaning it is set to act as a completely separate movie from the others. Reading into those words from Mr. Wright could mean that his script, targeted as a stand-alone film, could in fact be ripe for a Disney’s Pixar version of the movie.

Since Ant-Man won't happen until after The Avengers and since it's separate, that does allow for the possibility. If this were to happen, would that mean Wright would no longer direct since it’s animated and they’d just use his script? I wonder on the details what Pixar’s idea for this is if they've seriously thought about this. Or was it just a throwaway line for Disney officials about the potential future of Disney-Marvel?

This would also represent a new direction for Pixar which traditionally creates original family-oriented films.

Let’s just go with the safe assumption that we’ll get our live-action adaptation of Ant-Man as expected. For those who don’t know about the secondary character, Ant-Man (or Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym) was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and over the years, several folks in the Marvel Universe have used that alias, some of which were a part of The Avengers team at one point or another.

Ant-Man's powers include the ability to shift in size and maintain his normal strength when shrunk. He's can also telepathically communicate with insects. It'll be like Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, but with more dialogue.

As for casting, no official offers or signings have been made but there's been the obvious speculation and talk of Simon Pegg's involvement. He's mentioned in past interviews that he might be involved with the movie because of his connection with Edgar Wright. What that means, we're not sure. Could you see him as the titular character?

Who would you like to see play Ant-Man and what do you think of Pixar working on Marvel movies?

The Avengers opens May 4 2012 and there's no set release date for Ant-Man as of yet.

Sources: Entertainment Weekly (via Bleeding Cool), Mania, Pixar logo edited from artwork by Jon Eastwood