‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Casts Michelle Pfeiffer and Laurence Fishburne

Michelle Pfeiffer and Laurence Fishburne are joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The actress will play Janet van Dyne, the superhero wife of Hank Pym/original Ant-Man (Michael Douglas) and mother to Hope (Evangeline Lilly) in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp. The announcement was made Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con during Marvel Studios’ Hall H panel.

In Marvel’s comic books, the van Dyne character is the original Wasp and a founding member — and onetime leader — of the Avengers. She continued as a superhero even after Pym retired from adventuring, until she was lost in a subatomic realm and assumed dead. (She later returned, entirely healthy, because … comics.) In Marvel’s Ant-Man film, Pym mourned the loss of his wife, who had been lost in the subatomic realm in an act of heroism (she was disabling a rocket).

Fishburne’s character, Bill Foster, was a scientist who worked alongside Pym, later becoming a size-changing superhero in his own right, initially as Black Goliath and then taking over the role of Giant-Man from Pym. A long-running guest star in such comic book series as Marvel Two-in-One and Champions, Foster was one of the first casualties of Marvel’s original Civil War comic book in 2006.

Also revealed on Saturday: A character called the Ghost will be in the film. The Ghost is a relatively obscure Marvel villain who fits into the setup of the Ant-Man movies. Originally an Iron Man villain, the mysterious character (who is never seen unmasked) started as an industrial saboteur by trade who quickly fell into a world of paranoid delusion where he trusted no one and worked for whichever side served his own best interests at the time.

Both Pfeiffer and Fishburne are already Comic-Con favorites. Pfeiffer starred as Catwoman in 1992’s Batman Returns, while Fishburne is revered among the geek faithful for his work as Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy.

Ant-Man helmer Peyton Reed is set to direct the follow-up, with Paul Rudd returning as the titular hero.