Bill Murray's Mysterious Role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Revealed by Director
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Marvel Entertainment Bill Murray in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Peyton Reed is revealing details about Bill Murray's character in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
According to the director, Murray, 72, plays "a crucial role," as "a character from Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer)'s past," he told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview.
Murray briefly appeared in the film's first trailer, which Marvel Studios released in October, but no context about his character was given.
In the discussion about what Murray's character "represents" in Quantumania, Reed, 58, explained to EW, "A big theme in this movie is the things that parents and kids don't say to each other, the secrets that they keep in families."
"In the last movie [2018's Ant-Man and the Wasp], when Hank (Michael Douglas) and Hope (Evangeline Lilly) rescue Janet, Evangeline Lilly's character had this idea of, 'Oh, I'm going to be reunited with my mom, this is going to be great, we're going to talk about everything,' " he said. "But what happens if the other person — in this case, Janet — puts up a wall and maybe is not comfortable talking about certain things and doesn't reveal certain things about her past?"
"As we know from great stories, you can put the past behind you, but the past will always find a way to show up again," the filmmaker added. "Bill's character represents that in this movie."
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Marvel Studios Poster for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The upcoming third entry in the Ant-Man film series sees Jonathan Majors' villain Kang The Conqueror enter the picture after being introduced last year in season 1 of Loki.
After the heroes get transported into the Quantum Realm, they begin "interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible," according to a synopsis.
Kang says in the trailer, "I can get you home and give you more time if you help me. So, what's it gonna be, Ant-Man?"
Reed told Entertainment Weekly in July that when making the third Ant-Man movie, "we wanted to do some things differently."
He explained, "We really wanted to take a hard left turn and make a movie that was even more epic, but still progress the story of these family dynamics and everything that's going on between Scott and Hope and [Scott's daughter] Cassie," the latter played by Kathryn Newton.
"Cassie is now 18 years old and maybe Scott doesn't quite know how to relate to her as an adult because he lost those five years because of the events of Endgame," said Reed. "And we also knew that we wanted to put our heroes up against a very, very formidable opponent. I grew up reading the comics and I knew the character of Kang the Conqueror, who's one of the big, big bad characters in the comics, so to be able to put up our heroes against Kang the Conqueror was a huge thing for us."
He added, "We went big and we also went small."
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania flies into theaters Feb. 17, 2023.
