Hank Pym... the real villain of Ant-Man?

[Gifford]

A new theory has surfaced online that speculates Hank Pym could be the villain of Ant-Man and holds some weight.
[YT]ump6mY_Dyy0[/YT]

 

[CrypticOne]

I could see that most likely being true. Since Stoll is kind of a small name. Plus, who was the first villain in Iron Man? Stane.

I could see Marvel following the IM blueprint. And mixing it up by making someone we know as a hero, a villain.

 

[BatsDC]

I doubt it somehow. At most I could see him having some sort of sinister alterior motive, but not being the outright villain. I don't think Marvel would go that far with Pym, despite his crazy phase.

 

[chamber-music]

I'll address each of the points.

Tony Stark did the the voice over for the Iron Man Teaser trailer and he isn't a villain.

Pym's involvement with Scott Lang was in the Entertainment Weekly Ant-Man article.

Spoiler

Lang ended up in prison as he stole from a corrupt CEO who was stealing from his own employees.

My theory is the corrupt CEO may of been a rival of Pym's (perhaps Martin Donovan as Edwin Cord) and he had suspicions he was corrupt so was monitoring him. Lang robbing him brought him onto Pym's radar.

The director Peyton Reed said that Pym sets Lang up to steal his Ant-Man suit as a test which lands him back in jail (and probably to the teaser trailer scene of Pym offering to bail him out in exchange for him being Ant-Man.)

Which fits with Edgar Wight's description of Hank Pym 'recruiting' Scott Lang in a Machiavellian way and Rudd's comment about Lang being unwittingly involved in a larger scheme.

The Variety reporter may of been confused about Douglas being a villain because Hank Pym's Yellowjacket identity from the comics is being used by the films villain Darren Cross. Edgar Wright also debunked the Pym as a villain rumour when he was attached to the film.

Hope Van Dyne most likely blames Hank Pym for the her mothers tragic accident which Douglas mentioned. Lilly described Hope as the screwed up daughter of two superheroes. Her arc in the movie is reconnecting and forgiving her father most likely.

We know she switches to her fathers side, shares an emotional scene with her father and helps him when he is injured which makes it seem less likely he is the villain to me.

Redemption, estranged fathers and daughters seem to be the dual them of the movie reflected in Hope's estrangement from her father and Lang's from his daughter. Hank and Scott are both trying to win back their daughters and right some of the wrongs they may have done.

In terms of the twist, I think one of Langs ex-con buddies he meets in prison and help with the heist betray him to Cross. My money would be on Michael Pena who was rumoured to be playing a villain when his name was attached to the film originally and in the trailer he is seen walking around Pym Technologies with a gun.

 

[Urich Leeds]

I wouldn't be shocked if Pym's original reasons for wanting the tech back is just as bad as Cross's reasons for taking it.

 

[chamber-music]

Perhaps they have a Hank Pym/Heisenberg and Scott Lang/Jesse relationship

 

[ctsketch]

Odin did Thor voiceover in TDW a bit, Tony did IM3

 

[Village_Idiot]

I don't think Hank Pym will be the actual villain , but I could easily see him having an alternative motive

 

[Saitou Hajime]

I've been saying that I've been getting serious Harold Finch/John Greer vibes from Douglas' Pym (and if he has a hand in proto-Ultron's creation, the parallels run even deeper), so him being more shadier that he's letting on wouldn't surprise me.

 

[hopeless]

I wonder if Pym traced his mental problems to the prototype Yellow jacket and recognising the same signs in his younger rival decides to recruit Lang because he's worried what caused Janet's death will happen to Hope if he doesn't do something.

That something is arm Lang with the stable Antman gear although I do wish they reveal it also functions as Giant Man as part of the final battle, but is that just wishful thinking on my part?!

 

[Farren]

Eh, the stuff about the voiceover in the trailer and Variety calling him a villain at first doesn't really persuade me. That being said, I could see Hank as a villain (or antagonist) given that we've seen mentor figures turn out to be villains in the MCU, and because Hank has a history of poor judgement calls.

 

[chamber-music]

Hank's poor judgement calls aren't worst than a number of other heroes like Iron Man or Quicksilvers.

I think it is less likely they would make him evil precisely because they have done good guy is a bad guy twist multiple times before.

Corey Stoll said most of the characters are somewhat morally grey in Ant-Man. I think a good comparison is The Guardians Of The Galaxy who are good guys but not the boyscout Cap variety.

Castillo is also a villain in the film as well.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

It's not really a new theory. People've been talking about that possibility for quite some time, even way before filming started iirc

 

[Lightsplasher]

I've been saying that I've been getting serious Harold Finch/John Greer vibes from Douglas' Pym (and if he has a hand in proto-Ultron's creation, the parallels run even deeper), so him being more shadier that he's letting on wouldn't surprise me.

I'm so glad to see that I wasn't the only one to feel that way !
And I totally agree with you , same for his look .
They probably watched Person of Interest and found that cool

 

[metaphysician]

Hank's poor judgement calls aren't worth than a number of other heroes like Iron Man or Quicksilvers.

Leaving everything else aside ( I don't really believe they are making Pym the villain ), this really isn't true. At absolute minimum, Pym's "poor judgement calls" include 'making Ultron'.

 

[chamber-music]

Leaving everything else aside ( I don't really believe they are making Pym the villain ), this really isn't true. At absolute minimum, Pym's "poor judgement calls" include 'making Ultron'.

Ultron turning out to be a homicidal AI was more of a stroke of bad luck. Pym not realizing his own mental instability and using his brain patterns for Ultron was a flaw but he still couldn't predict what Ultron would become.

 

[metaphysician]

Ultron turning out to be a homicidal AI was more of a stroke of bad luck. Pym not realizing his own mental instability and using his brain patterns for Ultron was a flaw but he still couldn't predict what Ultron would become.

That's why its not an act of villainy. Its still a poor judgement call, given that his first experiment with creating AI involved building it a robot body that could kick his ass *and* brainwash him.

 

[chamber-music]

That's why its not an act of villainy. Its still a poor judgement call, given that his first experiment with creating AI involved building it a robot body that could kick his ass *and* brainwash him.

The original Ultron couldn't kick his ass. Ultron 1 was a crude robot.

The whole hypnotizing thing was always kind of stupid and didn't really make sense.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I think it's certainly possible.

 

[Loki882]

It'd be a TERRIBLE idea.

 

[Milla4Prez66]

I really don't want Pym to be THE villain. Obviously, he isn't going to be a squeaky clean guy. But he's one of my favorite Marvel characters but to have his lone movie role be as a washed up bad guy would frustrate me. 100x worse than the Mandarin twist if they try this twist.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

That's why its not an act of villainy. Its still a poor judgement call, given that his first experiment with creating AI involved building it a robot body that could kick his ass *and* brainwash him.

Heck the first time I created an AI I built it a robot body. I thought everybody did that.

 

[Slushy]

It'd be a TERRIBLE idea.

Agreed. It's bad enough I had to see Jim Phelps turn out to be the mole in Mission Impossible. What a crock of sh** that was!

 

[Whiskey Tango]

That wasn't Jim Phelps. That was some other guy named Jim Phelps, who looked a lot like Jon Voight for some weird reason. I think he used to work in accounting.

 

[TheVision]

I dont know what Id do if Hank turned out to be a villain. Its kinda weird because you dont know what his motivation is to be the bad guy. Couldnt he pretty much do things himself using his own technology if he wanted to be a villain? Why bother using Scott to do it?