Paul Rudd had brutal Ant-Man combat scenes with Jonathan Majors

Paul Rudd had brutal combat scenes with Jonathan Majors in 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'.

The 53-year-old star returns as the superhero Scott Lang/Ant-Man in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) blockbuster and reflected on the experience of taking a punch from Majors, who is portraying supervillain Kang the Conqueror in the movie.

Paul told The Hollywood Reporter at the film's world premiere on Monday (06.02.23): "It's legit. It feels intense.

"He's a great actor, and throughout the entire film, he really felt as if he was a formidable foe. He was also getting ready to go into 'Creed III', so anytime we're doing any of that fight choreography, it was real. It was amazing."

The movie marks the beginning of Phase 5 in the MCU and director Peyton Reed wanted it to eclipse its predecessors in the 'Ant-Man' franchise.

The 58-year-old filmmaker said: "This movie is the biggest of the three. We decided if we had a chance to make a third round, we wanted to go nuts.

"We wanted to beat Scott Lang up a little bit. It's still comedic, but also it takes a very serious turn. We love the idea of putting the tiniest Avengers, and Avengers that maybe fans think are the least powerful Avengers, and (putting) them up against the most powerful villain in the multiverse."

Reed had always planned for Kang the Conqueror to feature in the blockbuster and thought that Jonathan was the perfect actor for the part.

He said: "We knew early on that we wanted to put Ant-Man and the Wasp against the big villain.

"I loved Kang growing up as a comics reader. And we looked at a lot of Kangs, but I cast Jonathan because he had it all. He's physically imposing. He is one of the most exciting actors I have ever met and worked with. He's just a force of nature."