Laurence Fishburne has been reading comics since he was a kid, and has made no secret of his desire to join the vast array of actors who have made their marks in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He did brush up against Marvel once before: he provided the voice for Norrin Radd, a.k.a. the Silver Surfer, in Fox’s woebegotten Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), although of course that film was produced by Fox and not part of the official MCU (Radd and the Four could join the MCU if the proposed Disney-Fox merger goes through, but Fishburne wants to play Galactus now).

Now Fishburne — who has also shown up in the DC film universe as Daily Planet editor Perry White in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice — finally gets his chance in the MCU as Dr. Bill Foster, a rival scientist of Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Foster made his first comic book appearance back in 1966, and suited up as both Giant-Man and Goliath/Black Goliath over the years. In the new movie, Pym, his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) turn to Foster for help as they try to determine whether Hank’s wife, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), is still alive and able to be rescued 30 years after vanishing into the subatomic Quantum Realm.

Den of Geek had the chance to speak with Fishburne — whose long and impressive credits include Apocalypse Now, Mystic River, Boyz N the Hood, the Matrix trilogy, What’s Love Got to Do With It, Hannibal and Disney/ABC’s current hit series Black-ish — about his love for comic books, his thoughts on the rise of Afro-centric heroes like Black Panther and Luke Cage, joining the Ant-Man series and more.