The first trailer for Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man – the studio’s other film release of 2015 – caught many a person off-guard with its somber and serious tone, seeing as the movie is headlined by generally-funny everyman Paul Rudd (who rewrote the script with his Anchorman 1 & 2 director Adam McKay) and directed by Peyton Reed – helmsman of such light-hearted material as Bring It On, Down With Love, and Yes Man.
The above “Ant-Man trailer re-edited” has gotten some attention, for repackaging the teaser so that it feels more befitting of what’s expected to be an overall playful Marvel superhero adventure. Similarly, Ant-Man costar Judy Greer recently said that while she cannot speak for the actual film yet, she anticipates it having its fair share of comedic value, based on her experience during production.
Greer is playing supporting roles in a handful of big-budget tentpoles hitting theaters this year, including Ant-Man, as well as Jurassic World and Disney’s Tomorrowland. The Arrested Development and Archer fan-favorite’s character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that of Maggie, the ex-wife to professional criminal-turned superhero Scott Lang (Rudd) and the mother to his daughter, Cassie.
Lang’s relationship with his daughter is highlighted in the Ant-Man teaser trailer, and Greer indicated to IGN (during the TCA press tour this past week) that this subplot will serve as the heart of the film:
“[Ant-Man is] my first comic hero that I’ve really researched and fallen for. I also think the Ant-Man origin story that we tell in our movie is really beautiful and I think there’s something really real about a man trying to better himself for his family.”
There appear to be a number of similarities between Scott Lang in the Ant-Man movie and the other superheroes that are already part of the MCU (Iron Man, in particular), but him being a parent is something new for a Marvel film protagonist. The same goes for the movie’s heist genre elements, which (fingers crossed) together with the family drama storylines, may help elevate Ant-Man into being more than the sum of its familiar superhero origin story parts.
Comedy is generally a part of the Marvel movie formula, and Greer doesn’t expect that to change with Ant-Man, either:
“I haven’t seen it yet but there was a lot of comedy on set and we did a lot of comedic improv. I don’t know what will end up in the movie, but yeah.”
Comedic improv was an important part of the original Iron Man‘s artistic success, and is something that people such as Rudd and Greer have excelled at before. It’s also a different style of comedy that what was offered last year by James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy, which is encouraging to hear, seeing as the biggest concern aboutAnt-Man right now is that it’ll prove to be a generic addition to MCU, in terms of story and tone. The more unique it seems in these regards, the better.
Ant-Man opens in U.S. theaters on July 17th, 2015.
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