The Marvel Cinematic Universe has no shortage of veteran actors as Michael Douglas returns to the superhero universe to reprise his role of Hank Pym in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The fans love Douglas’ portrayal of the character as he brings out the real essence of the character from the comic books, often showcasing the inner turmoil of his struggles and flaws as a scientist and a father.
The Ant-Man fans were ecstatic as the Traffic actor was going to make his much-awaited return to the third sequel of the film. However, he made a surprising statement as he disclosed a condition for his return to the franchise. Nevertheless, the executives at Marvel decided to pay no attention to his request and leave it unanswered.
Michael Douglas’ Special Request For His Return to the MCU
Last year, Michael Douglas shared his experience of returning to reprise his role of Hank Pym for Ant-Man 3. During the premiere of the third installment of the film, he shared with The Hollywood Reporter, how he would be interested in making a return for a fourth film of the franchise, “as long as I can die.”
It turns out the request was not for the fourth film, but for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Recently, the actor sent shockwaves around the world, when he described in quite detail how would like to make his exit from the franchise on screen. Douglas appeared on The View, to promote his new historical series, Franklin, The actor stated, “This actually was my request for the third one,” where he described how his request for a serious death was turned down by Marvel and he wanted to use all “those effects” for one last time.
He said via Entertainment Weekly,
“I said I’d like to have a serious [death], with all these great special effects. There’s got to be some fantastic way where I can shrink to an ant size and explode, whatever it is. I want to use all those effects. But, that was on the last one. Now, I don’t think I’m going to show up.”
Michael Douglas’ request for a glorious death was not a personal request as his serious death with all the CGI could have saved Paul Rudd’s threequel which earned only $463.6 million via The Numbers at the worldwide box office, which is extremely low compared to the popularity of the franchise.
Fans Were Immensely Disappointed with Marvel Studios For Not Complying Michael Douglas’ Request
The One Day in September actor’s comments made a splash across the internet, as DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) shared the statement on X. Fans were not too thrilled with how Marvel decided to turn down the request of the veteran actor.
The news majorly attracted a negative response from the fans, as they felt that the franchise should have complied with the request, which would have saved the film from being a box office flop.
Would’ve been a proper send off. Man’s old anyways.
— SucrePapito (@MNzesi) April 16, 2024
yeah everything in the movie spelled “Hank is going to die” but it didn’t happen for whatever reason
— 𝐿𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑜𝑟𝑑 (@touchstilldey) April 16, 2024
This movie needed something like this to raise the stakes…
— Lachesis (@LachesisHD) April 16, 2024
Bro knows the MCU is in shambles, so he wanted to have nothing to do with them anymore 😭
— T⚽️byy (@t0byychels) April 16, 2024
Yeah that would’ve literally made the film legendary.
Ant man never had to lock in before
This would change that
— KRAKOA FOREVER (@h0uselife) April 16, 2024
that would have raised the stakes if kang killed hank especially for the Kang Dynasty when antman meets kang again
— Harrison James (@ImHarisonJames) April 16, 2024
While Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym survived the precarious events of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, he, probably is not too interested in making a return to the MCU. The actor has been tight-lipped about the future of the franchise, as the film which was meant to introduce Kang the Conqueror, the big villain of the MCU played by the now-fired Jonathan Majors, failed to meet the expectations of the fans, and been an eye sore among the critics.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania can be streamed on Disney+.
