Michael Douglas Says Marvel Refused to Kill Off His Character and Wouldn't Let Him Quit When He Was Ready

Two time Academy Award winning actor Michael Douglas has been acting for sixty years, and though he hasn’t retired, the actor is only taking on the roles he feels he can handle at 82 years old.

When he signed on to play Marvel’s Hank Pym in the Ant-Man movies, he was already in his 70s, and after two movies, he was ready to move on from the role. But Marvel wasn’t done with him, and he was surprised to hear that his request to kill off Hank Pym was denied.

When Douglas was asked on the Happy Sad Confused podcast if the stories were true about him wanting to be killed off from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he responded: “I would have been killed off after the second one, but they wouldn’t let me.”

Appearing on The View in 2024, Douglas said he asked Marvel to kill him off in the third standalone Ant-Man movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and even pitched an idea of how to do it that included a special effects bonanza.

“[Getting killed off] actually was my request for the third one,” Douglas said at the time. “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 [for a fourth].”

Douglas went on in the podcast to talk about the positive experience he’s had making the movies, noting the incredible special effects and his wonderful co-stars, saying:

“I said, ‘I’ve never done a green screen movie. I [told] all my agents, ‘I’d like to do one of these green screen movies to see what they’re like,’ you know? Because it’s amazing.

“It’s nothing, just a green screen and they show you the pictures of what it’s gonna look like when it’s all finished. It’s hard acting, man. It’s coming at you here, this and that, you know… We did Ant-Man and Paul Rudd was a wonderful actor — a lovely group — but then you can’t get out of it.”

I’ve enjoyed Michael Douglas in the role, but it sounds like he’s done playing Hank Pym. If he has anything to say about it, that is.

via: Variety