How Paul Rudd Changed the Script for ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’

Marvel’s Ant-Man movie franchise has established its own unique heist comedy corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and if there is one Marvel movie star who knows comedy, it’s certainly Paul Rudd. Rudd helped write Ant-Man, lending his comedic talent and voice to the script; he’s also done the same for the upcoming sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp.

While at Marvel Studios’ press day for the film, the Ant-Man and the Wasp cast and director revealed that Rudd made some changes to the the scrip – changes that made have been made with a specific agenda in mind…

According to Michael Douglas, “He gave himself more funny lines.“

“His best lines in the movie are not in the script,” actress Evangeline Lily added.

Obviously there’s a certain amount of friendly snark in those responses from Rudd’s principal co-stars in the film; however, director Peyton Reed made it clear that in actuality, Rudd does have the vision of not just a good comedic writer, but a good superhero movie writer, in general.

“Paul’s as generous a writer as he is an actor,” Reed said. “Paul always has the whole picture in mind when he’s writing and acting.”

So what did Rudd himself have to say about knocking out an exciting Marvel Movie sequel? As you would expect from the trademark Paul Rudd charm, he was as humble as ever:

“I try and think of the film as a whole and I think of every character,” Rudd said. “This has been a collaborative effort more than anything I’ve ever worked on and to think that I actually wrote it would be a gross overstatement.”

Rudd went on to credit Peyton Reed and others, giving a lot of emphasis to Eric Summers and Chris McKenna who “did really a lot of the heavy lifting.”

The story of Ant-Man and the Wasp picks up a few years after the events of Captain America: Civil War, where we find Scott Lang (Rudd) off of Ant-Man duty while on house arrest. Meanwhile, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lily) have continued research into the mysterious Quantum Realm – research that unleashes a potentially disastrous threat, set loose in the hands of the mysterious woman named “Ghost” (Hannah John-Kamen). Scott and Hope must then learn to once again be the team known as Ant-Man and The Wasp, in order to stop Ghost, and maybe achieve a game-changing breakthrough unearthing the secrets of the Quantum Realm.

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.