Marvel’s “Ant-Man” continues the studio’s legacy of super stunts

Marvel isn’t new to the stunt world and for their latest film Ant-Man, they kept to their roots. “He (Ant-Man) is a super hero,” said Trevor Habberstad, stunt coordinator on the film said. “He needs to do super things.”

Habberstad, along with his dad Jeff (who is also an acclaimed stunt planner), were able to once again work with Marvel to create the stunts for the newest Marvel hero. The two of them love working with the studio because they know the value of stunts to the storytelling. “The studio is smart. They’re willing to pay for a premium stunt double or to build contraptions to make it happen,” Habberstad lauded.

The studio didn’t only pay monetarily, but also with their time to create the perfect stunts for Ant-Man. Habberstad continued, “We met once a week with everyone involved in the film including Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige to build these sequences and remove the ones that didn’t work.” In all, the stunt team took 3 months to plan it all out in what Habberstad called a “true collaboration” that made making the film memorable for all.

Some of the most intense planning was for all the times Paul Rudd’s character Scott Pym became the Ant-Man by shrinking. Habberstad and his team took up a large soundstage and utilized motion capture technology to create the effect. It’s the same technology that has been used to create believable characters like Lord of the Rings and now most recently Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

You can see what it was like to capture that action on the soundstage, as well as more of the Habberstad and team’s work creating those super stunts in the special features included on the Blu-ray/Digital HD copy of Ant-Man available on December 8, 2015.

Our special thanks to Trevor Habberstad and the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for their interview time for this story.