Why Ant-Man won't be joining the Avengers, as explained by Joss Whedon

Hank Pym, aka Ant-Man, may be the canonical creator of Ultron, but he won't be making an appearance in Joss Whedon's The Avengers: Age of Ultron. The reason? Well, it has to do with former Ant-Man director Edgar Wright, according to an interview with Empire.

"Of all the heat I've ever taken, not having Hank Pym was one of the bigger things," Whedon told the publication. "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."

In The Avengers, Ultron is instead created by Tony Stark, the brilliant, billionaire playboy who acts as Iron Man in his spare time. Despite Ant-Man's rapidly approaching introduction to the big screen with his own movie, Whedon explained that adding in a third scientist character such as Pym felt "a bridge too far" for the films; Stark and his Hulk pal Bruce Banner are enough already.

"Ultron needs to be the brainchild of the Avengers, and in the world of the Avengers and the MCU, Tony Stark is that guy ... 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."

For more on The Avengers: Age of Ultron, check out the full interview. You can also read all about Ant-Man in our explainer.