Corey Stoll Brings Life to Yellowjacket Villain in Marvel's Ant-Man

Marvel’s Ant-Man introduces a new villain onto the scene: Yellowjacket. Corey Stoll brings the character to life showing both Darren Cross’ evil and “loser” side in the film hitting theaters on July 17th.

Corey Stoll

Corey describes Darren as the “least cool guy in the world. He wants to be Tony Stark. He wants to be the coolest guy in the world… but he knows that he’s not that guy.” The irony is found in what Darren Cross thinks his father figure wants from him and what he actually desires. The script offers very real, playable motivations that help carry the theme of redemption throughout the movie.

Bringing Yellowjacket to life was not all cut and dry though. The motion-capture technology used in the movie is abstract. In fact, there is no actual Yellowjacket costume out there. There is only an unpainted sculpt of the helmet really. The costume department tried several versions of the suit but they never found one that fit right. In the end, it was decided to just go with CGI for his costume and it worked well. Did Corey feel jilted? No way.

“I know I wasn’t wearing something but you look at it, it really looks real. It’s really amazing.”

I have to agree by the way. Yellowjacket’s non-tangible costume is incredible. In fact, whereas Ant-Man’s suit doesn’t have any weapons, Yellowjacket’s suit is armed with plasma cannons. With all the resources and technology used to create the villain, Cross compares it to being a 10 year old on the playground again, “You just sort of use your imagination and have fun.” Basically meaning the best part of his job is simply playing!

Marvel's Ant-Man Yellowjacket/Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) — Photo Credit: Film Frame © Marvel 2015

Corey Stoll does a dynamic job playing Darren Cross and I found it interesting that he the first thing he told Marvel was that he wanted to play a villain. It’s not too often that you want to be the “bad guy” rather than the superhero… but Stoll pulled it off… and pulled it off well!

Perhaps one reason Corey was able to jump into the role so well was from years of reading comic books. As an avid comic book fan, he knew the story lines as well as exactly how to play the part.

Don’t miss Marvel’s Ant-Man as it crawls into theaters Friday, July 17th.