Kevin Feige Defends Marvel Against Ant-Man Scrutiny Following Wright Exit

He also expressed that he thinks the movie is in as good a shape as it’s ever been with director Peyton Reed at the helm.

“Peyton is going to do a tremendous job and the cast is tremendously dedicated and the script is getting into amazing shape,” Feige said. “You wouldn’t expect a producer to say anything different, but when that movie comes out it will be the absolute best version of Ant-Man that could have existed.”

He continued: “The biggest disappointment for me is just the relationship, because I like Edgar very, very much and we were very close for many many years. But the perception that the big evil studio was too scared at the outside-the-box creative vision is just not the case.”

That was a point he tried to drive home again and again, specifically indicating James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

“The Marvel movies are very collaborative, and I think they are more collaborative than what he had been used to. And I totally respect that,” Feige said. “[But] the notion that Marvel was scared, the vision was too good, too far out for Marvel is not true. And I don’t want to talk too much about that because I think our movies speak to that. Go look at Iron Man 3; go look at The Winter Soldier; go see Guardians of the Galaxy later this month. It would have to be really out there to be too out there for us.”

Ant-Man is due in theaters next July.