Marvel confirms Paul Rudd will play Ant-Man in Edgar Wright's 2015 movie

News broke earlier in the week that Paul Rudd would play ­the lead role of Ant-Man in Edgar Wright's 2015 Ant-Man movie, but Marvel made the announcement official on Thursday night with a post on its website.

Rudd repeatedly dismissed reports of his casting as simply rumors, but he appeared to just be playing coy as Marvel's announcement reveals that the studio had "long ago identified" the Anchorman 2 actor as it first choice and the right man for the job.

Here's the announcement from Marvel:

"Marvel's Ant-Man has found its hero in Paul Rudd, who will star in the new film from director Edgar Wright hitting theaters July 31, 2015!

The casting of Rudd represents the actor that Marvel had long ago identified as its first choice to play Ant-Man, continuing the studio's desire to cast actors that bring several dimensions to its onscreen heroes. The film's plot is being kept under wraps.

'When Edgar Wright came to us with the idea of Paul Rudd, we felt a huge sense of relief because the first step in creating any Marvel Studios film is finding the right star,' said Marvel's Kevin Feige. 'We knew early on that we had found the right person in Paul. When he not only agreed to do it, but became as enthusiastic as any actor we'd ever met with about doing the work, we knew we'd found the right guy. We couldn't be more excited for our audiences to see what he's going to do to bring Ant-Man to life.'"

Because the plot of the film is shrouded in mystery, it's unclear if Rudd would play Hank Pym or Scott Lang, both of whom donned the Ant-Man suit at some point in the comics. Fans already know that Ant-Man will not create Ultron (as he does in the comics) because the sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron will release before Ant-Man in 2015.