Tight-Lipped Paul Rudd Jokes About His Tiny Director’s Chair in the Avengers: Doomsday Reveal: ‘There’s Still the Part of Me That’s Like, It’s a Little Emasculating’

Paul Rudd was, as you’d expect, asked about Avengers: Doomsday in a recent interview following confirmation of the Marvel movie’s cast, but he remained tight-lipped.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Ant-Man actor was asked about the Marvel livestream that slowly revealed chairs with Avengers: Doomsday actor names on them. The video confirmed an additional 26 actors set to appear in the superhero mash-up alongside Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. Rudd’s chair, in keeping with his super small superhero role, was tiny in comparison to all the other chairs.

null — Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man appropriate chair confirmed his role in Avengers: Doomsday.

“I saw that announcement. I did,” Rudd said in the interview, clearly trying desperately to not give anything away or offer any clues that might bring the Marvel heavies knocking on his door.

And about that tiny chair, Fallon began: “I guess because you’re…

“Because I’m Ant-Man?”

“Yes.”

“I hope so.”

Rudd then went on to deflect the line of questioning with typical humor.

“I thought, ‘oh that’s clever, yes I’m Ant-Man.’ But there’s still the part of me that’s like, it’s a little emasculating to have a little tiny chair. But at least, finally, one that will actually fit me when I sit down.”

Fallon then asked directly if Rudd could tell him anything about Avengers: Doomsday at all. Rudd’s answer was… well, it was nothing.

“There is nothing that I can tell you,” he said, before joking about the secrecy surrounding the movie and Marvel projects generally. Rudd said that keeping secrets where they should be for “a major movie” like Avengers: Doomsday is a serious business, unlike “military secrets” or “some sort of coordinated attack.”

It’s a fun exchange, but one all the actors whose names appeared in Marvel’s livestream will now face whenever they do interviews to promote their projects. Take the cast of Thunderbolts, for example. Now they’re (pretty much all) confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, they’ll be asked relentlessly about the film while out on the press tour.

In the absence of more information from Marvel itself, MCU fans have been searching the chair livestream for hints and Easter eggs, and believe they might have found one or two.

Most have now moved on from the video to debating what the cast announcement means for Avengers: Doomsday itsel. Marvel surprised many by announcing a number of returning stars from Fox’s X-Men films. Fox X-Men veterans Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn, and James Marsden are all now confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday. Grammer famously played Beast in the Fox X-Men franchise before making his MCU debut via The Marvels’ post-credits scene.

Stewart played Charles Xavier/Professor X in the X-Men films before appearing briefly in the MCU via Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as a member of the Illuminati. McKellen, who played Magneto, has yet to appear in the MCU. Neither has Cumming, who played Nightcrawler, Romijn, who played Mystique, nor Marsden, who played Cyclops.

Even Channing Tatum gets to play Gambit again after his star turn in Deadpool & Wolverine. It begs the question: is Avengers: Doomsday secretly an Avengers vs. X-Men movie?