Simon Pegg set off an Internet brush fire on Thursday when he tweeted a photo of himself at Marvel's headquarters standing in front of a mural of painted Marvel characters, pointing at Ant-Man. And it just so happens that Pegg's good friend and frequent collaborator Edgar Wright is directing the upcoming "Ant-Man" movie (due in theaters in 2015).
So, yes, the Internet was abuzz with "Is Simon Pegg going to play Ant-Man?" type rumors and speculation. Pegg then had to tweet an explanation that, no, that's not what he meant.
We spoke to Pegg -- who is currently doing press for Edgar Wright's other film, "The World's End" (the full interview will publish next week) -- on Friday afternoon during which he expanded on why he tweeted that photo and why he doesn't want to be Ant-Man.
You caused quite the Internet shit storm on Thursday.
Oh, man, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the amount of importance people placed on it. It seemed ridiculous to me. Even though it's a film that my best friend is making, there are far more important things to be tweeting about than me fucking pointing at a painting. You know what it was? I was at Marvel doing a podcast and I had my picture taken with the Hulk and Thor. And then I was having my picture taken by the big mural and I was like, "There's Ant-Man!," because Edgar's doing Ant-Man. So, I pointed at it and the next thing I know, it's like "He's Ant-Man!" I mean, grow up!
I think that you got kind of caught up in the Vin Diesel-Marvel hype, because he cryptically posted a photo of a "Guardians of the Galaxy" character.
Groot, yeah.
I think people had that in their heads.
You know, as it happened, as it was taken, as I tweeted it, it didn't entirely escape my mind that I might be fucking with people. But, I kind of thought, What the hell? You know? Kick up a storm for the day. It will be fun.
People seemed open to the idea of you playing Ant-Man. It seemed to be a positive response.
Yeah, what's funny is that I read Edgar's script for "Ant-Man" and it's going to be great. I'm very excited about it and I can't wait. I love watching stuff that Edgar directs that I'm not in. I love watching Nick [Frost] because I can be a bit more objective about it. I'm not so invested in it personally -- I can actually sit back and be a fan. Like, I love "Scott Pilgrim" and I was so happy that film was so good because I was so proud of Edgar. And I'm very proud Edgar's going to be doing a Marvel movie and I can't wait to see it. I don't want to be in it, in a way -- not that he'd want me to be in it, either -- because we have to keep our different houses separate. I can't be in everything Edgar does. It would be a shame, our own little brand exists in a bubble we have to kind of protect. It would almost sully that.
Like if Edgar directed "Star Trek".
Yeah, it would be kind of weird. Not that he couldn't direct "Star Trek," I'm sure he'd do a great job. He did shoot one shot in "Star Trek Into Darkness." There's one shot -- not a scene. It's like three seconds of some Klingon getting shot. He was on set and J.J. went, "Can you do that one?" I wasn't even on set that day.
Mike Ryan is senior writer for Huffington Post Entertainment. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
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