The Marvel Cinematic Universe was built on the shoulders of the numerous superhero films that came before. X-Men, Spider-Man, and Blade had a major role in popularizing superheroes on the big screen, each playing the part to make a blueprint that would eventually yield the Marvel formula.
One such movie was Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man, which began development in 2003. However, Ant-Man is notoriously considered to have had a complicated production, with Marvel and Wright clashing at many key points until the writer-director parted ways with the studio over creative differences.
Edgar Wright shot test footage for the film
Ant-Man was one of the first films that was announced in the MCU. Wright had even appeared at Comic-Con with Feigi in 2006 to announce Ant-Man, along with Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man. This made sense, given that Ant-Man and the Wasp were founding members of the Avengers. However, while the films were announced together, Ant-Man was considered more of a Phase 2 property. Nevertheless, Wright, upon finishing some edits to the script in 2012, showcased test footage that he had shot at ComcCon 2012.
However, the notes that were on the script seemed to be never-ending for Wright, who was working on the script in between projects with Joe Cornish. The duo also engaged in writing additional drafts, to accommodate Marvel’s notes without compromising on their vision. However, things only went downhill from there.
Also Read: Superhero Movies That Should Be Directed By Edgar Wright
Marvel commissioned their scripts, independent of Edgar Wright
Despite trying to see Marvel’s vision of Ant-Man through, without compromising on their own, Wright and Cornish found themselves receiving a completely new script, commissioned by Marvel, two months before shooting was to commence. At that point, Paul Rudd had already signed on to play Scott Lang and most of the cast was also in place to play the respective roles.
The script that was commissioned by Marvel, all in all, horrified Edgar Wright, who felt it was the right choice to move on from the project for good. The director said (via Collider):
“I wanted to make a Marvel movie but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie. I was the writer-director on it and then they wanted to do a draft without me, and having written all my other movies, that’s a tough thing to move forward thinking if I do one of these movies I would like to be the writer-director. Suddenly becoming a director-for-hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”
The movie ended up proceeding with Peyton Reed, who went on to direct Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
