Ant-Man: 8 Actors Who Could Play Young Hank Pym

With Michael Douglas playing old man Pym, there's got to be room for a younger version of the same character...

by Andrew Pollard
Ant Man Pegg Now that Michael Douglas has been confirmed to be playing old man Hank Pym in Edgar Wright's Ant-Man opposite Paul Rudd, the suggestion is that another actor will follow him in as a younger version of the character. It stands to reason that Wright would follow the trend of establishing at least some of Pym's origin story, after all. But who could play the character? One of the most complex characters in the Marvel world, Hank Pym is a character that has so many different layers and elements to him. On his best days, Pym is arguably the smartest mind in a Marvel world full of extremely intelligent characters like Reed Richards and Tony Stark, and on his worst, he is a violent, unstable, suicidal mess who struggles with his own genius and the self-imposed pressure. That of course leads to the question of just how deep are Marvel and Disney looking to dig into the psyche of their Hank Pym, and how much of that will be shown in the younger version of the character? Given that there's a strong suggestion that there will be some sort of origin (even briefly) requiring the portrayal of a younger Pym, it's likely the next announcement (or at least one of the next) will be just that. Depending on how Marvel Studios is looking to portray the Hank Pym character, we have several possibilities on who could be in the running to play the younger version of Michael Douglas' Henry Pym.
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.