'Ant-Man and the Wasp' Star Laurence Fishburne Reveals How He Joined the MCU

Laurence Fishburne is certainly no stranger to the comic book movie realm, but it sounds like his first venture into the Marvel Cinematic Universe came about in an interesting way.

ComicBook.com was on hand during Ant-Man and the Wasp's official press conference, were Fishburne discusses his role as Bill Foster/Goliath. As Fishburne revealed, he initially earned his role in the film thanks to an array of different things, from his love of the comics to the location of his other roles.

"It is not the first Marvel role to come my way," Fishburne said, having voiced the Silver Surfer in Fantastic Four. "I've been a reader since I was eight. I've been a fan my whole life. Really enjoyed the movies and what they've done with the MCU ... I realized that I was on the lot of Marvel and working on ABC's Blackish and remembered I had worked with Louis Desposito and realized I should go talk to them and say, 'Hey, what do I gotta do to be in the movies?' And they were kind enough to say, 'We'll think about that Fish!'"

While Fishburne has previously portrayed the Silver Surfer and Batman vs. Superman's Perry White (and is set to executive produce a Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur animated series), it sounds like his role as Goliath will be something unique.

"Bill's a former colleague, who really was involved early on with Pym in a thing called Project Goliath and their lives have taken these kind of divergent paths," Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed said during a visit to the film's set. "When we find Bill Foster in this movie, he is teaching quantum physics at Berkeley. I also liked the idea of grounding because the movie takes place in San Francisco and it's not just for stunts and scenery. Like, Berkeley, that's an important thing in the movie."

"[Bill and Hank Pym] were both involved with S.H.I.E.L.D at some point, but one guy's sort of stepped away and taken a more academic approach," Reed continued. "I liked the idea from the beginning, especially having Michael and Laurence Fishburne, of these guys who are sort of scientific rivals. That's really the rivalry and we always talked about sort of a Steve Jobs/Bill Gates kind of thing. Two scientists who are both geniuses in quantum physics and quantum mechanics."

"But maybe have a Mac/PC rivalry about what the approach to delving into the quantum realm might be," Reed added. "I also like the idea of with those two actors, especially with Fishburne, someone who's gonna actually go toe to toe with Michael [Douglas] in terms of who's the smartest guy in the room? That struck me as something really fun. So, to give Hank Pym a foil in this movie in that way."

Are you excited to see Fishburne make his entrance into the MCU? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Ant-Man and the Wasp will land in theaters on July 6th.