Why We Won't See Ant-Man in 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

It’s already been widely reported that Avengers: Age of Ultron will feature an origin story for Ultron that’s different from the original Marvel comics, in which Hank Pym (aka Ant-Man) was responsible for the creation of the super-villain. If you were curious about why Ant-Man won’t be in the upcoming Avengers sequel at all, director Joss Whedon has some answers.

In an interview with Empire, Whedon was asked why we won’t see Hank Pym in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the comics, Pym created Ultron, and the decision to change the villain’s origin story in the Avengers sequel has left some fans unhappy. Whedon starts out by explaining that the decision was partly due to Edgar Wright’s work on Ant-Man:

Of all the heat I’ve ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things. But the fact of the matter was, Edgar had him first and by virtue of what Edgar was doing, there was no way for me to use him in this.

Whedon goes on to say that Wright’s decisions for the direction of Ant-Man before he parted ways with Marvel were just a small part of it — in fact, Whedon decided that including Ant-Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron wasn’t a great idea anyway:

I also thought it was a bridge too far. Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU, Tony Stark is that guy. Banner has elements of that guy – we don’t really think of him as being as irresponsible as Tony Stark, but the motherfucker tested gamma radiation on himself, with really terrible, way-worse-than-Tony-Stark results.
It didn’t make sense to introduce a third scientist, a third sciencetician, to do that. It was hard for me, because I grew up on the comics, to dump that, but at the end of the day, it’s a more interesting relationship between Tony and Ultron if Tony was once like, ‘You know what would be a really great idea?’ They’re doing what they always do – which is jump in headfirst, and then go, ‘Sorry, world!’ But you have to make it their responsibility without just making it their fault.

Whedon’s reasoning is pretty sound, although we can imagine a slightly different scenario, in which Pym would be introduced in Age of Ultron, creating the super-villain and setting off a series of unfortunate events before appearing in his own solo film just a couple of months later. But regardless of some of the changes made from book to screen in the MCU, we’ve hardly been disappointed with Marvel’s current run of films.

Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives on May 1, followed by Ant-Man, which hits theaters on July 17.