Yesterday, Marvel made the surprise announcement that Michael Douglas is playing Hank Pym in Ant-Man, while later confirming that Paul Rudd is playing Scott Lang. In the Marvel comics, Hank Pym creates the original Ant-Man technology, which allows him to shrink to the size of an ant while retaining all of his human strength. Scott Lang came along later as the new Ant-Man in the comics, having stolen Pym's life work.

Just hours after the announcement, Michael Douglas told Reuters that he has always wanted to do a Marvel movie.

"I've been dying to do a Marvel picture for so long. The script is really fun, the director is really good. Dylan (the actor's 13-year-old son) will love it. He'll have a picture he can see."

The announcement came less than 24 hours after he won a Golden Globe award for playing Liberace in the HBO TV movie Behind the Candelabra. The actor also talked about shaking things up with new roles.

"Sometimes - like (when) they didn't see you for Liberace - you've got to shake them up a little bit and have some fun."

It isn't known if he signed on to appear in just Ant-Man, or if his deal includes provisions for possible sequels. Since the actor has only appeared in one sequel (2010's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) throughout his illustrious career, he was asked about whether or not he would appear in more Marvel movies down the line.

"(Marvel) reciprocated well, there are sequels. Who knows?"

Although no story details have been confirmed for Ant-Man, co-writer/director Edgar Wright released a photo last month from an episode of the animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, "To Steal an Ant-Man", which centered on Scott Lang stealing the original Ant-Man equipment from Hank Pym, to commit crimes.

Is it possible that Michael Douglas could be introduced as Hank Pym in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as he was originally a member of that team?