It’s easy to think that there’s not much else for Michael Douglas’ Hank Pym to do in the MCU beyond the completion of the “Ant-Man” trilogy. He has retired from Ant-Man-related activities, reunited with his love, Janet Van Dyne, after her disappearance into the Quantum Realm, and explored the subatomic world himself. Not to mention, he’s not getting any younger, and neither is Douglas. On the other hand, there’s more narrative potential for the character and the actor behind him thanks to two major factors: time and the Multiverse.
Case in point: In the second season of the animated series “What If…?”, Douglas had the opportunity to play a version of Pym from elsewhere in the Marvel Multiverse. In the episode “What If…Peter Quill Attacked Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”, he voices an alternate timeline Pym, who’s still active as Ant-Man in the late 1980s. He and King T’Chaka (Atandwa Kani), Dr. Wendy Lawson (Keri Tombazian), and Dr. Bill “Goliath” Foster (Laurence Fishburne) form a proto-Avengers team to prevent Ego’s (Kurt Russell) takeover of Earth through his son, Peter Quill (Mace Montgomery Miskel).
Even though the possibilities for future MCU stories featuring an animated young Hank Pym are virtually endless, the fact is, at some point, the live-action version will have to ride off into the sunset someday. Hopefully, the character will get a conclusion Michael Douglas can be proud of.