Ant-Man Suit – Ant-Man Set Visit & Costume Department

I was invited on an expense paid trip back in November to cover Marvel’s Ant-Man while on set of the film.

The Ant-Man Suit is a technical piece of costume and wardrobe created by designers and engineers who use high tech equipment like 3-D printers and CAD drafting software! When attending an Ant-Man Set visit, I totally geeked out when part of the set visit included meeting in the Costume Department with Costume Designers Sammy Sheldon and Ivo Coveney.

We stood around a display of different types of costume equipment around a designing table where drafts, sketches, and many different Ant-Man suits hung which included the ones for Paul, the Ant-Man Suits for stunts, and even ones for his own stunt-men! Behind the table where we stood the designers had stuff hanging on the wall. The wall had testers, wires, and drawings.

The costume team alone at one point had 50 people on it! They eventually made it down to 23! Costuming for the movie takes 7 months. This is a really long time in Hollywood because that is a lot less time than the entire filming process takes.

When it came to researching how the Ant-Man suit would look the team had to research tons of insects and patterns. Peyton Reed loved how the Star Wars helmets looked with scratches so he wanted to have that look on the helmet as well! If you look at the detail alone in he suit you will notice the patterns looks like a bug/insect.

Paul Rudd, who plays Ant-Man had his own versions of the suit. His suit is considered the “HERO” suit. He had one that was his “Glamour” suit and another one that is his “Stunt” suit. He also had two stunt men. So they just called these suits “Stunt Man #1” and “Stunt Man #2”. As long as the costume department had the molds, the suits would take 3 weeks to create just one costume as long as 3 people were working on it. All of the pieces in the suit light up! So that would explain the wires that were hanging all over the department.

The attention to detail in the Ant-Man suit was amazing. They had 54 pieces on the helmet along and 50 pieces on the belt. Each piece had to be crafted and put together including what type of material they were going to use all the way down to the different screws and scratches! The first place they start with is the get the concept drawing and then they start designing it, and then they start building it. Hey had a total of 13 suits, 17 helmets, 17 belts, and they had to focus on each part of the costume being able to work with every stunt!

While meeting with Sammy and Ivo, something totally amazing happened! I was able to WEAR the Ant-Man mask! So besides Paul Rudd, I had learned the only other person who was able to put on the mask was Colin’s son. Colin Follenweider is Paul Rudd’s stunt double! He has been the stunt double for movies like Spider Man, Divergent, Agents of Shield and tons more! Colin’s son had come by around Halloween and was Ant-Man for Halloween. His mom had made some really awesome costume and they let him put the mask on for a little bit while he visited the set! So I was able to put the mask ON and literally had it screwed on my head, and take pictures! Talk about totally geeking out. I was able to WEAR THE Ant-Man mask! BUCKET LIST item that I never knew I had totally came true! Then I got to put no the Ant-Man SUIT! Okay just kidding I wasn’t able to wear the suit, but I did get to touch it! ☺

So as we were trying on the helmet, one of the set guys walked by and was shocked. He said, “THEY get to wear the helmet!” We then learned that all of the costume guys had wanted to wear it and were never allowed. So getting to wear this was something REALLY special!

Be sure to go and see Marvel’s NEW next BIG (or really really small) THING on July 17, 2015!

The next evolution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brings a founding member of The Avengers to the big screen for the first time with Marvel Studios’ “Ant-Man” when master thief Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, protect the secret behind his spectacular Ant-Man suit from a new generation of towering threats.