In 2015’s “Ant-Man” the shrinking superhero (played by Paul Rudd) took down the shrinking bad guy, Yellowjacket. But as the hero returns for the sequel, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” in theaters Friday, he’s up against a foe less obviously connected to the world of insects. After director Peyton Reed — who also helmed the first movie — waded through what he calls “gigantic tomes of all the Marvel characters” searching for a new antagonist, he and his team decided on a character named Ghost.
Here, Reed breaks down everything you need to know about the Marvel franchise’s new villain.
The big change
Early on, Reed knew the baddie would be significantly different from what was depicted in the comic books, where Ghost first appeared in an “Iron Man” issue in 1987. For the first time, the character would be female. “There was no compelling reason why this character had to be a man,” Reed tells The Post. Making Ghost a woman also tied into the movie’s theme. “Both the original ‘Ant-Man’ and this movie [are] really about fathers and daughters,” the director says, citing Ant-Man alter ego Scott Lang’s bond with the young Cassie, as well as mentor Hank Pym’s (Michael Douglas) relationship with Hope (Evangeline Lilly). A father figure for Ghost plays an important part in the film.
The actress
To add to Ghost’s enigmatic nature, Reed sought an actress who wouldn’t be instantly recognizable to audiences. The filmmakers landed on British import Hannah John-Kamen, who stars on the SyFy series “Killjoys” and has appeared on “Black Mirror” and on the sixth season of “Game of Thrones” as Ornela. “You can’t quite pin Hannah down in terms of where she’s from,” says Reed. “She had these amazing eyes and just had a very striking look that felt mysterious.”
The powers
Ghost can’t change the size of her body like Ant-Man can, but she can maybe do him one better with the ability to move through solid matter. A past tragedy led to the character, whose real name is Ava, being inundated with quantum energy. Afflicted with a “quantum disequilibrium,” as Reed describes it, Ava can move through walls like, well, a ghost. But her so-called “phasing” (which is represented via trippy visual effects) comes with a serious downside. “She’s having trouble keeping her structural integrity intact, and it’s getting worse as time goes by,” says Reed.
The motivation
Often, supervillains seek world domination, but Ghost’s mission is purely personal. When she discovers the good guys are planning a trip to the Quantum Realm to try to save Hope’s mother (Michelle Pfeiffer), Ghost believes their technology could lead to her cure. “While incredibly powerful and dangerous, she’s also a victim,” says Reed. “And you can really see her side of this thing.”
The get-up
Ghost’s skintight neoprene suit is meant to help control her body’s breakdown, and it includes a masked helmet with a subtle visual echo of Ant-Man and Wasp’s bug-like headgear. “[It’s] also taking cues from how a little kid might draw an actual ghost,” explains Reed. “You don’t want to see any hint of humanity in that mask [because] it’s a thing that she’s forced to wear that, in her mind, is [stripping] away her humanity.”