Michael Douglas asked Marvel to 'kill him off' after second Ant-Man movie

Michael Douglas wanted to be "killed off" after his second Ant-Man movie.

The 82-year-old actor joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Hank Pym - who was also the original Ant-Man - in the original 2015 blockbuster and before returning for 2018 sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame the following year, and 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Douglas told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: "I would have been killed off after the second one, but they wouldn't let me."

The movie veteran was actually keen to work on a CGI-heavy film as a chance to try something new.

He explained: "I said, ‘I’ve never done a green screen movie.’

"I [told] all my agents, ‘I’d like to do one of these green screen movies to see what they’re like,’ you know? Because it’s amazing.

"It’s nothing, just a green screen, and they show you the pictures of what it’s gonna look like when it’s all finished.”

After his first MCU role, Douglas noted that it was "hard acting", adding: "It's coming at you here, this and that, you know?"

He joked about how he should have read the "fine print" in his contract.

Douglas noted that Paul Rudd "was a wonderful actor" and the rest of the cast was "lovely".

However, he said: "But then youn can't get out of it."

As well as his live action appearances, the actor also voiced Hank Pym in several episodes of Disney+ animated series What If...? from 2021 to 2023.

In 2024, Douglas revealed his plans for his character's on screen death.

Appearing on The View, he said: "[Getting killed off] actually was my request for the third one. I said I’d like to have a serious [death], with all these great special effects.

"There’s got to be some fantastic way where I can shrink to an ant size and explode, whatever it is. I want to use all those effects."

The veteran actor had admitted in 2023 that he still had to "ask quietly" about certain topics in the MCU.

He told Digital Spy: “On the first one I knew nothing. I was not a comic book addict when I was a kid.

“I didn't know the Marvel world, so they sent me a whole slew of the comics to get some idea.

“I didn't have any idea about [the universe] and even now I still have to ask quietly because I don't want to be an idiot.

"Now it's getting very complicated because Kang, our ultimate villain in Ant-Man: Quantumania, is going to be in a lot of the different Marvel films."