DREAM CAST: Could Casting Bradley Cooper And Benedict Cumberbatch In ANT-MAN Give The Project The Attention It Deserves?

Ant-Man will be released and will begin pre-production in October, which means that casting will be happening between then and the new year. While I've had my own speculations about Benedict Cumberbatch's legitimate candidacy for one of the main roles. An old article from DailySuperhero leads me again to think that Bradley Cooper could actually be wanted for one of two Ant-Man roles as well. Before this story was posted I had heard rumblings that Cooper was in the mix for Ant-Man too. We've seen misdirections before by Marvel when it comes to casting, plus nothing has been officially announced concerning his involvement in Guardians of The Galaxy (Rocket Raccoon). What seems to be confirmed at this point is that Cooper has met with Marvel concerning a lead role in one of their films.

The leading man is at a career high and has previously wanted a shot a comic book franchise. Originally, in place to play Hal Jordan in Green Lantern before WB hired Ryan Reynolds instead. He's also been linked for The Flash and Supercrooks. Cooper was on Marvel's radar over a year ago (along with Joel Edgerton who was linked for Quill and Strange) and had been thought to be pursuing the Peter Quill role in Guardians of The Galaxy. More recently he's been linked for Rocket Raccoon but is a very odd choice. Granted, playing Rocket would be cool but does seem like a bit of a waste just to use his voice. The only guiding factor is that this is the second time he's been linked to Guardians and has a personal/working relationship with leading lady Zoe Saldana (Gamora). It's possible that Ant-Man is also a strong property that could use both Bradley's talent and high-profile. The studio would need well-known actors for the film to be taken more seriously. Case in fact, when Marvel hired Robert Downey Jr. to play Iron Man audiences/outlets took notice. Even though at the time Stark was the most obscure Marvel hero to hit the screen since Blade in 1998. Ant-Man is sort of in the same boat as Iron Man was, but could have that high-profile actor to give the character it's exposure.

One of biggest problems with making a film based on Ant-Man is that he's an extremely unknown Marvel hero and a hard film to sell. It's new high-tech spy angle could get end up being Marvel's take on Bond meets Mission: Impossible. When you think of those two franchises you think A-list leads. One way Edgar Wright and Marvel could fix this issue is by hiring two actors with massively large fan-bases, since the film will focus on both Hank Pym and Scott Lang. Cooper has become the new American heartthrob thanks to Oscar nominated performance in Silver Linings Playbook. Simon Pegg previously said Wright/Marvel were going after an American for the lead. Giving the impression that Pym would actually be played by an American actor. However, since Scott Lang has been confirmed to be apart of the film it's possible that casting could be more openminded. Benedict Cumberbatch has fandom and ladies alike swooning for him due to his roles in Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness (Marvel loves casting Trek alumni) and unseen roles in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug/The Hobbit: There And Back Again. Benedict could give  the Lang (Ant-Man II) the depth needed to hate and also care for. I can't be the only one who was rooting for Khan in Into Darkness.