Paul Rudd Explains Why Ant-Man's Saturday Night Live Cameo Had to Happen

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are no stranger to clever cameos. The films that make up the MCU frequently have interesting little moments, the Stan Lee cameos being perhaps the best known and most loved, but when it comes to cameos with an interesting backstory, Ant-Man may just have one of the best. There's a brief scene in the 2015 film featuring original Saturday Night Live cast member Garrett Morris and now, Ant-Man himself Paul Rudd is explaining why that moment in the film had to happen.

During a panel at the New Yorker Film Festival, Rudd explained that the origin of the scene has its roots all the way back to the 1979 Saturday Night Live "Superhero Party" sketch which featured host Margot Kidder as Lois Lane throwing party for superheroes in her apartment with husband Superman -- played by Bill Murray. The scene also included John Belushi as the hulk and Morris as Ant-Man. It's Morris' turn as Ant-Man for the sketch that prompted Rudd to want him in the film.

"A lot of people might not know this, but the guy in that car is Garrett Morris, and you know he was in the original cast of Saturday Night Live," Rudd said (via The Hollywood Reporter). "The reason we did that was because of that famous sketch from Saturday Night Live where John Belushi plays the Hulk in that whole party in the New York apartment. Well, [Morris] actually played Ant-Man in that sketch and so we said we had to get him in there for that cameo."

As for the future of the Ant-Man films, that's a bit up in the air. When Marvel Studios announced their Phase 4 slate at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, a third Ant-Man film wasn't on it. That doesn't necessarily mean that an Ant-Man 3 isn't in the works, however. Director Peyton Reed has been pretty open about his plans to make a trilogy and he's previously explained that there are threads in each film that sets up the next one.

"I think that was the case in the first movie, particularly when Adam McKay and Paul [Rudd] were reworking the script on the first movie," Reed said. "In that movie, we added the Quantum Realm and Janet and stuff like that knowing that if we were able to make a sequel that that could be fertile ground."

Reed added, "There are definitely things in this movie that, if we're fortunate enough to make another one, there's a lot to play with. We spend more time in the Quantum Realm in this movie, obviously, than the first movie but it feels like we're just dipping our toes into it."