The newest film from Marvel Studios finally introduced one of the founding Avengers, as the original Wasp Janet van Dyne made her debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Now that the movie is in theaters and the digital and Blu-ray release date has been revealed, Marvel artist Aleksi Briclot started to reveal concept art depicting different versions of these iconic characters. The latest image imagines a different take on the character, more in line with her comic book appearance.
The same artist previously provided different versions of the Wasp design, including a take that looks more like Ghost costumes as inspired by the Quantum Realm.
The Wasp is one of the most iconic heroes in the pages of Marvel Comics, and director Peyton Reed was determined to knock her MCU debut out of the park. With Evangeline Lilly playing the modern version and Michelle Pfeiffer playing the classic version, fans seem to agree that he succeeded.
Pfeiffer was always on the director’s wishlist to play Janet, so much so that in the character in the original film was modeled after the actress.
“We used a double on the first movie.” director Peyton Reed explained earlier this year. “But the whole thing was, ‘I want her to look like Michelle Pfeiffer, because that would be my dream casting for Wasp.’ We cast this woman to be in the mask who had really saucer-like, Michelle Pfeiffer eyes.”
Reed went on to speak about his efforts to get Pfeiffer into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how he had to fight to get her to stay involved with the project. He was worried the actress wouldn’t want to do another superhero movie after Batman Returns.
“I had no idea if she would even be remotely interested in doing this kind of a movie again or how she’d feel about it.” Reed revealed. “So, we met. She came over and sat in one of the conference rooms, just the two of us at Marvel and kind of talked through who Janet Van Dyne was in the comics and who she might be in this movie…
“Then after meeting her, it became more and more, ‘Now I’m convinced if she doesn’t do it, I’m going to be a wreck.’ We gave her some comics. I said, ‘You can scour the internet and do all the research you want, but it’s only going to get you so far, because the comics and that character started in the early ’60s. A lot of the stuff in the comics is really two-dimensional, if not one-dimensional, and we want to do something different.’”
Fans can see Pfeiffer’s take on Janet van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp, in theaters now.
