Why Thomas The Tank Engine Couldn't Kill In Ant-Man

During a new Film School Rejects interview, Ant-Man director Peyton Reed revealed the conditions Marvel had to work with in order to use the likeness of Thomas the Tank Engine for the film's most memorable fight scene.

Not surprisingly, there were a lot of rules that the rights-holders wanted obeyed in order to allow their valuable, children's property to be used as a sight gag in the latest $100 million superhero movie.

"I believe in Edgar [Wright] and Joe Cornish's original drafts it was a train set," Reed said. "At some point in the process that predated my involvement it became Thomas. As I came on, they had not secured the rights to Thomas. We had to do this whole thing where we did this presentation for the people who own the rights to Thomas. Thank God they agreed and found it funny, but there were definite stipulations. For example, nobody could be tied to the tracks and run over by Thomas. Thomas couldn't be doing anything that could be perceived by children as evil Thomas. Thomas had to stay neutral in the battle, which was always our intention. Like anybody, they're protective of their brand. I didn't know what we were going to do if we didn't get the rights to that. There are certain things I was going to be devastated about if we couldn't have them. Thomas was one, because...you could do any kind of toy train, but the personality of that thing and the eyes moving back and forth give it a whole vibe and took it to another level."

Ant-Man is in theaters now.