Michael Douglas has been plotting his exit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and admits he’d asked to be killed off in the last Ant-Man film.
It looks like Michael Douglas is done with Marvel movies. The screen legend has played Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man across several films now, beginning with 2015’s Ant-Man. Douglas was a major part of that first film, but as the series has progressed, he’s found himself part of an ever-increasing ensemble, not to mention doing more and more work in front of a giant green screen.
Still, Michael Douglas must have grown somewhat comfortable with the latter given that he outlined his demands for the character’s death to Marvel, and special effects seemed to be a key part. Speaking at the premiere of last year’s Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania (it’s been almost a year now and that title is still a pain to write), Douglas said he’d only come back for one more film if he could die (a gambit known as ‘The Han Solo clause’).
Now, in a fresh interview with The View, (via Entertainment Weekly) Douglas has revealed that he actually made the request for Quantumania but that was not the direction Marvel wanted to go in.
The actor also revealed how he planned to go, stating that “[Getting killed off] actually was my request for the third one. 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].”
Read more: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania review | Marvel hits more problems
Having not got his way, Douglas seems to have decided that he probably won’t do another. Perhaps Marvel should have just let Douglas shrink, then explode. That would have certainly brought… something to a film that was not particularly well received, adding some much needed stakes to a franchise which increasingly seems to lack them, despite the seemingly infinite breadth of its multiversal storytelling.
Either way, Douglas seems to have decided that he’s out. We don’t know if he still has a contract with Marvel but we doubt the company would try to force a 79 year-old screen legend into appearing against his will. That would not be a good look. At the moment, we’re not sure if there’ll even be another Ant-Man film following the disappointment of Quantumania. If there is though, don’t expect Douglas to turn up unless it’s for one quick scene where he yes, you guessed it… shrinks. Then explodes. In that specific order.
