This New Jersey Born Actor Will Reprise Role In Avengers Doomsday

If you are a fan of movies like I am, you know that the evolution of modern technology has opened the door for a wave of action films that utilize special effects that were unavailable 30 years ago.

On the list of the highest-grossing movie franchises of all time are 10 Franchises that started in the 21st Century. To the chagrin of Hollywood Traditionalists, Superhero movies hold nine of the Top 30 highest-grossing movies of the last 100 years.

When factoring inflation, the four Avengers movies are the fifth-highest grossing film franchise of all time. While other film franchises like James Bond (27) and Star Wars (15) have double digit movies over the course of a few decades, the first Avengers film was released in 2012.

Marvel Studios has announced the next film in their Avengers series will release in 2026, and one of the star actors is originally from New Jersey.

This Actor From New Jersey Will Reprise His Role In Avengers: Doomsday

Each Avengers film is the culmination of a story arc that plays out in the preceding Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. With every Avengers movie comes a massive cast of big names that join the showcase of characters coming together to deal with a big threat.

Born in 1969 in Passaic, New Jersey, Paul Rudd was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2024. His family moved to Overland Park, Kansas before he entered Junior High School because of his dad's job at TWA.

Rudd's initial rise to acting fame started playing the character Mike Hannigan on the TV Show Friends and two years later his parody-style role in the movie Anchorman. His role as Bobby Newport on the TV Show Parks and Recreation earned him a Critics’ Choice Television Award.

Thanks in part to his experience in a variety of Movies and TV shows, Paul Rudd became a comic relief-style hero when he was first cast as Scott Lang for the 2015 Ant-Man Movie.  In the trilogy of Ant-Man movies with Paul Rudd, he is joined by another New Jersey-born actor, Michael Douglas, who portrays the infamous Hank Pym.

Overall, Rudd has appeared as the superhero Ant-Man in five Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame. In 2019, the fourth Avengers movie earned the second-highest box office gross profit of all time ($2.799 billion).

Paul Rudd's Ant-Man Trilogy has generated over $610 million at the Domestic Box Office. When Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters in 2026, it will be the first time that Rudd reprises his role as Scott Lang's Ant-Man in three years since the third solo Ant-Man film.

On the list of the 15 Most Successful Actors from New Jersey, the affable Paul Rudd is higher in the ranks than you may realize: