See Bill Murray As His Upcoming Marvel Character, Larger Role Than Expected?
Bill Murray has his own character poster for Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, leading to speculation that his role will be larger than expected.
Even though a lot of questionable alleged events from Bill Murray’s past keep bubbling to the surface, Marvel Studios is proving surprisingly bold about including the actor in their promotional lead-up to Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. The studio just released seven new character posters for the film, including one for Murray’s Krylar. You can see their tweets below, followed by a larger version of the poster focusing on the What About Bob star.
Appearing in only a single shot of the first Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania teaser, and not appearing at all in the more recent trailer, Bill Murray’s Krylar had been assumed to be a relatively minor character. In fact, the character he’s playing lived and died in a single Marvel Comic: 1972’s Incredible Hulk #156. Krylar is a weapons dealer in the source material who is backstabbed (figuratively — he gets literally stabbed in the front) by the treacherous Lord Visis.
Director Peyton Reed told Entertainment Weekly back in December that Billy Murray’s role is a “crucial” one, in that it not only has to do with the past of Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), but that it speaks to the larger themes in the film.
“Bill Murray plays a character from Janet van Dyne’s past. It’s a crucial role. A big theme in this movie is the things that parents and kids don’t say to each other, the secrets that they keep in families… Bill’s character represents that in this movie.”
-Peyton Reed, Director of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania
You would think Bill Murray’s role in the sequel would have to be pretty important considering the Saturday Night Live alum hasn’t been scrubbed from the film altogether. The worm started to turn for Murray back in April when it was revealed he had been removed from the film Being Mortal for alleged inappropriate behavior on set. Months later, it came out that a young female staffer on the film claimed that Murray had straddled and kissed her without her consent.
After details about the allegations surfaced, they were followed by decades worth of stories of alleged inappropriate behavior from Bill Murray, particularly when it came to his guest host spots on Saturday Night Live. Seth Green said when he was only around 7 years old, he was appearing in a sketch on the show when Murray picked him up and dropped him in a trash can for sitting in a seat the older actor had apparently decided belonged to him. Around the same time, Rob Schneider claimed Bill Murray “hated” the younger SNL cast when he guest hosted; particularly Adam Sandler and the late Chris Farley.
Perhaps the most damning story to surface so far comes from Bill Murray’s co-star in the 1990 comedy Quick Change. Geena Davis claimed she still felt traumatized over Murray allegedly screaming at her in front of hundreds of people on set. She also said that he forced her to let him use a back massage device on her the first time they met about the film.
Apparently, so far Marvel has not deemed the situation dire enough to remove the star from the movie or its marketing. Bill Murray and the rest of the cast of Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania show up on the big screen on February 17.
