When last we heard on the Ant-Man front, the first official trailer had been classified and set at just under two minutes, which means that it’s likely to drop some time really soon. (No whammies, no whammies!) But before that happens, some new promo art for Peyton Reed’s film has hit the web and it’s just given us our first look at the villainous Yellowjacket who’ll be a thorn (or rather stinger) in Paul Rudd’s side.
Over the past couple years, we’ve seen some brief test footage, a ton of concept art, one official image from the film and even some preliminary footage revealed in a Marvel TV special. But nothing on the main villain until this new Ant-Man promo art (via Comic Book Movie) which sees Yellowjacket as the Doc Ock of Marvel’s size-shrinking crop of characters. For a second, we weren’t sure if we’d ever actually see Corey Stoll don the Yellowjacket suit, but this image gives us hope that he’ll be pretty badass.
Here’s a closer look at Yellowjacket, just in case you’re not a fan of squinting.
Thanks to the Ant-Man panel at Comic-Con 2014, which brought out Stoll and the entire principal cast, we already know a bit about what to expect from the character. We’ll first see him in the film as Darren Cross, who was, according to the actor:
Hank Pym’s mentee and a genius scientist as well. I have taken over the company and some very judgmental people may think that that’s an evil direction, but I’m just taking it into the future."
Pym is, of course, is played by Michael Douglas, and he’s looking for a successor to bestow his Ant-Man suit upon. Because of Cross’ actions, he decides Scott Lang (Rudd) is better suited for the job. Cross still manages to get ahold of the "Pym particles," which are the source of Ant-Man’s size-shrinking capabilities, and Lang must then disregard his con-man past and embrace his inner hero to stop him.
Now that we know what Yellowjacket will look like in Ant-Man, how’s about Marvel give us some of Evangeline Lilly as The Wasp? The actress donned a bob haircut for her role as Hope van Dyne, which is intriguingly similar to how the original Wasp looks like in the comics. Then there’s also the reappearance of John Slattery’s Howard Stark and the rumored return of Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter to look forward to. Ant-Man’s overall significance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is still to be deciphered, but these developments lend more hype. And it was much needed, considering we all had our hopes up for Edgar Wright’s original vision, before he ultimately dropped out due to creative differences. But if Guardians of the Galaxy proved anything, it's that Marvel can take even the most obscure property and turn it into a blockbuster sensation.
