Kevin Smith Theorizes Bill Murray's Ant-Man Role

The big Marvel news of the week is that Ghostbusters and Lost in Translation star Bill Murray will join the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. His role is being kept under wraps for now -- not exactly a surprise considering it's a $150 million Marvel movie, and virtually everything about it it secretive. Of course, when you tell Marvel fans that something is secret, it instantaneously becomes a guessing game, and during the most recent episode of Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, somebody asked Smith for his best guess as to Murray's role in the upcoming superhero threequel.

Smith's guess? Robert Lang, the father of Scott Lang. Created by Matt Fraction, the character has never appeared onscreen but was first referenced in an issue of FF, and his death was later referenced in The Last Days of Ant-Man. 

"F--k that, I'm calling it now: Bill Murray is Mephisto," Smith said during the taping, cracking up not only Bernardin but the audience as well. After that died down, he amended his guess, suggesting that the obvious choice would be to cast Murray as the father of Paul Rudd's Ant-Man.

Smith's approach to Murray, though, is that ultimately it's less important who he's playing and more important that Murray is the one playing him.

"Look, Bill Murray in everything as far as I'm concerned," Smith said.

In a recent interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Murray revealed he just wrapped on a Marvel project. As with most casting news, Marvel Studios has yet to unveil Murray's involvement, and the actor didn't specify which character he'd be playing.

"You know, recently I made a Marvel movie. I probably won't tell you, but never mind. In any case, some people were quite surprised why I decided on such a project. But for me the thing was quite clear: I got to know the director – and really liked him very much," Murray told the paper (through a translation by Cosmic Circus). He was funny, humble, everything you want from a director. And with the cheerleader story Bring It On he made a movie years ago, which I think is damn good. So I agreed, although I'm not interested in these huge comic book adaptations as an actor otherwise."

Ant-Man filmmaker Peyton Reed will apparently not be bringing Murray back for more than the one appearance, though; Murray admitted that while he had a good experience on his first Marvel movie, it isn't something he feels like he needs to do again.

The first two Ant-Man movies are now streaming on Disney+. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now due out July 28, 2023.